Re: [Groff] Mac Editor with Groff Syntax Highligting
On 08/02/2011 03:40 PM, wiremoons wrote: Hi - sorry this is not directly a Groff question, but related none the less! I use Groff (ms macro) on my Mac computers for virtually all my documentation (reports, meeting notes, technical notes) that I output to pdf format using Mac OS X provided `pstopdf' command. Example below in case anyone finds it useful: groff -t -p -ms MyFile.ms | ps2pdf -i -o MyFile.pdf My question is does anyone on this list use a Mac OS X computer and a text editor that supports syntax highlighting for Groff macros please? I have looked at BBedit, TextMate, UltraEdit, SKEdit, Smultron and a few others too - but none have support included for the Groff macro format(s) that I can find. I know a lot the above allow you to create a syntax support file of your own - by that requires regular expression skills that are beyond my current capabilities unfortunately. So, if anyone has Mac editor suggestions - or uses a Mac editor and can share their Groff language syntax support file with me that would be great :) I am using MacVIM at the moment - which has great syntax highlighting support. I am finding it odd to use after using TextEdit for so long though, so hence the quest for something else. Thanks for any help Simon Bite the bullet and keep using vim. The book The Ultimate Guide to the Vi and Ex Text Editors is still available from Amazon, though availability appears to be fading (1-3 month lead time, but some are in stock (used?). I wrote the original in 1987, and have been using vi/vim since 1985. It's still the only one I use. When a client insists I use word, my price jumps 25% or more. Vi's that good! Dave Taylor in Workstation magazine (1990) said even if you have thousands of hours of experience using vi, it's well worth several hours reading that book. A better one has never been written. Clarke
Re: [Groff] Mac Editor with Groff Syntax Highligting
Simon: I am using MacVIM at the moment - which has great syntax highlighting support. I am finding it odd to use after using TextEdit for so long though, so hence the quest for something else. I too use Vim. As it is with touch-typing, the key to the successful learning of Vi(m) is to abstain from the long-accustomed alternative procedures. In other words -- just forget about all other text edi- tors for a time. But after you have wonted yourself to Vi(m), other text editors won't be so poisonous anymore. Anton P.S.: I used to use TextPad (on Windows), in which it is easy to set up a two-panel layout and a script that would, upon pressing a hot-key, process the text in one panel with a custom groff pipeline showing the result in the other panel. With Vi, I have created a macro to quicker process text, but I still do not know how to have the output appear in another buffer, so that I don't have to revert to the source code by undoing the processing... Maybe Clark will give advice...
Re: [Groff] Mac Editor with Groff Syntax Highligting
I wrote: Maybe Clark will give advice... I meant Clarke. Sorry. Anton
Re: [Groff] Mac Editor with Groff Syntax Highligting
On Wed, Aug 03, 2011, Clarke Echols wrote: Bite the bullet and keep using vim. That would be my suggestion, too, even though Simon's apparently looking for ways to avoid it. I don't think it's by accident that so many of us on the list, who do so much writing, use vi. Still, learning vi when all you want is syntax highlighting for groff source... It's kind of like telling someone to go mine lapis lazuli and grind it into pigment, when all they want to do is paint with blue. The book The Ultimate Guide to the Vi and Ex Text Editors is still available from Amazon, though availability appears to be fading (1-3 month lead time, but some are in stock (used?). Clarke, is there any way we could get permission to do with _Ultimate Guide_ what was done a couple of years ago with UTP? Yours is, as you say, the best vi book around. Dave Taylor in Workstation magazine (1990) said even if you have thousands of hours of experience using vi, it's well worth several hours reading that book. And after reading it, and a couple thousand more hours using vim, you still won't know everything there is to know! -- Peter Schaffter Author of The Binbrook Caucus http://www.schaffter.ca
