[Groff] Re: Which macro package?

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi,

> I've observed that the .ms macro package seems to be by far the most
> popular with *roff users. What might be the reason for that?

I'd guess it is strongly influenced by the first macro set you become
familiar with.  ms preceeded mm.

Here are a couple of extracts from _The Unix Text Processing System_ by
Kaare Christian, 1987, that might be of interest.

    Chapter 6 -- The -ms Macros

    -ms was the UNIX system's first widely used general-purpose troff
    macro package.  It is available on Berkeley UNIX and on Version 7.
    Although -ms is officially unsupported on System V (because -mm is
    the official System V macro package), it is available on many
    System V installations.

    Chapter 7 -- The -mm Macros

    -mm is the UNIX system's most flexible troff macro package.  It was
    designed to do everything that -ms could do, and then some.  -mm
    was also designed to provide informative error messages and to be
    easily extensible.  These goals have been attained, although a
    certain price has been paid.


Ralph.