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             Xroff, an alternative troff syntax


                      John Ankarström


Introduction

Xroff  is an alternative syntax for troff, visually inspired
by SGML/XML. It differs from troff’s default syntax  in  the
following ways:

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.*

2. Xroff requests may be used inline. The following works as
   expected: (<ft B>bold<ft R>).**

3. Xroff ignores empty lines.

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>

   <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.



                        10 June 2022





                             ‐2‐


Xroff

The program xroff translates xroff source to troff source.

Xroff‐mode

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.

Caveats

Xroff  does not treat indented lines specially. As such, in‐
dentation cannot be used to convey structure.










































                        10 June 2022