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+ Xroff, an alternative troff syntax
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+ John Ankarström
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+Introduction
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+Xroff is an alternative syntax for troff, visually inspired
+by SGML/XML. It differs from troff's default syntax in the
+following ways:
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+1. Xroff requests begin with a less-than sign and end with a
+ greater-than sign, e.g., <SH 1>. These symbols may be es-
+ caped with a backslash.*
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+2. Xroff requests may be used inline. The following works as
+ expected: (<ft B>bold<ft R>).**
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+3. Xroff ignores empty lines.
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+4. Default troff syntax may be used between <![ and ]>.
+
+The similarities with XML end at the visual level. Unlike
+XML, xroff is unstructured and imperative. There is no con-
+cept of closing tags.
+
+Example
+
+ <de b>\\fB\\$*\\fR<.>
+
+ <TL>Example document
+ <AU>John Doe
+
+ <AB>Pellentesque dapibus suscipit ligula. Donec posuere augue in quam.
+ Etiam vel tortor sodales tellus ultricies commodo. Suspendisse
+ potenti. Aenean in sem ac leo mollis blandit. Donec neque quam,
+ dignissim in, mollis nec, sagittis eu, wisi.<AE>
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+ <SH 1>Introduction
+ <LP><b Nullam eu ante> vel est convallis dignissim. Fusce suscipit,
+ wisi nec facilisis facilisis, est dui fermentum leo, quis tempor
+ ligula erat quis odio. Nunc porta vulputate tellus.
+
+-----------
+ * For comparison, default troff requests begin
+with a newline and a control character, usually a
+period or an apostrophe, and end with another new-
+line.
+ ** Before an inline request, xroff automatically
+inserts a \c escape when appropriate.
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+ 10 June 2022
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+ -2-
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+Xroff
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+The program xroff translates xroff source to troff source.
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+Xroff-mode
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+For Emacs users, there is a major mode named xroff-mode that
+provides syntax highlighting for xroff source. To further
+improve the writing experience, I also recommend olivetti-
+mode.
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+Caveats
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+Xroff does not treat indented lines specially. As such, in-
+dentation cannot be used to convey structure.
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+ 10 June 2022
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