Hi Branden,

On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 07:21:07PM -0600, G. Branden Robinson wrote:

C.  Getting a scan out there tells us at least what one software
    configuration deemed acceptable by producers of the book generated,
    even if it's impossible to identify details of that software
    configuration.  That in turn helps us to judge the results of
    _known_ software configurations--groff, and other troffs too.

Hmmm, yeah, sounds useful for a modern troff(1) implementor.  Probably
not so much for one interested in the contents of the documentation
itself.  Whenever I meet a scanned PDF while searching for a PDF, it's
not a good feeling.

quoted

Doesn't groff(1) handle the Unix sources?

Assuming the full source of a document is available, and no part of its
toolchain requires software that is unavailable (like Van Wyk's "ideal"
preprocessor) then if groff cannot satisfactorily render a document
produced by the Bell Labs CSRC, then I'd consider that presumptively a
bug in groff.  It's a rebuttable presumption--if one document in one
place relied upon a _bug_ in AT&T troff to produce correct rendering, I
think my inclination would be to annotate the problem somewhere in
groff's documentation and leave it unresolved.

For a case where groff formats a classic Unix document "better" (in
the sense of not unintentionally omitting a formatted equation) than
AT&T troff, see the following.

Hmmm, yep, that's what I expected.

https://github.com/g-branden-robinson/retypesetting-mathematics

quoted

I expect the answer is not licenses (because I expect redistributing
the scanned original will be as bad as generating an apocryphal PDF in
terms of licensing).

I've opined before that the various aspects of Unix "IP" ownership
appear to be so complicated and mired in the details of decades-old
contracts in firms that have changed ownership structures multiple
times, that legally valid answers to questions like this may not exist.
Not until a firm that thinks it holds the rights decides it's worth the
money to pay a bunch of archivists and copyright attorneys to go on a
snipe hunt.

And that decision won't be made unless said firm thinks the probability
is high that they can recover damages from infringers in excess of their
costs.  Otherwise the decision simply sets fire to a pile of money.

Hmmmm.

...which isn't impossible.  Billionaires do it every day.

quoted

I sometimes wondered if I should run the Linux man-pages build system
on the sources of Unix manual pages to generate an apocryphal PDF book
of Volume 1 of the different Unix systems.  I never ended up doing so
for fear of AT&T lawyers (or whoever owns the rights to their manuals
today), but I find it would be useful.

It's the kind of thing I've thought about doing.  :)

If you do, I very much want to know if groff appears to misbehave.

Hmmmmm, I guess I should do it.  I'll take some time, but I'll keep it
in mind for things to do this year.  For some reason, I'm more busy now
only doing free software, than when I had a regular job _and_ also did
free software.  :|


Have a lovely day!
Alex

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>