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part3-3.xml
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part3-3.xml
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/xml; charset=utf-8"/>
<title>Composition</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/book.css" type="text/css"/>
</head>
<body>
<h2>
Composition
</h2>
<p>
Since the UNIX manual has such a rich history of development, it would be strange were it not to have a significant body
of supporting tools for composition. In fact, Version 7 AT&T <a class="term" href="glossary.xml#unix">UNIX</a> was
bundled with a set of tools, the UNIX <a class="term" href="glossary.xml#wwb">Writer's Workbench</a>, specifically for
composing documents — spell-checking, grammar-checking, and so forth. Even then, sophisticated editors had long
since been a pivotal part of UNIX.
</p>
<p>
Although the <a href="commands.xml#cmd_ed" class="cmd">ed</a>, <a href="commands.xml#cmd_ex" class="cmd">ex</a>, and <a
href="commands.xml#cmd_vi" class="cmd">vi</a> editors are stipulated by <a class="term"
href="glossary.xml#posix">POSIX</a>.1-2008, the Writer's Workbench has long since been discontinued. Even
spell-checkers are not standard across modern UNIX systems, although many high-quality editors and composition utilities
may be downloaded.
</p>
<p>
In short, the situation is messy: composing <span class="lang">mdoc</span> documents (and in fact any <span
class="lang">roff</span> document) is tricky to do without downloading special software.
</p>
<p>
However, one of the best parts of <span class="lang">mdoc</span> is that none of these specific tools are necessary: an
<span class="lang">mdoc</span> document is just a text file and may be composed in any editor, and its text contents
analysed by any utility smart enough to ignore <span class="lang">mdoc</span> syntax.
</p>
<table class="nav">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="nav-contents"><a href="toc.xml">Contents</a></td>
<td class="nav-next"><a href="part3-3-1.xml">Next</a></td>
<td class="nav-home"><a href="http://manpages.bsd.lv/index.html">Home</a></td>
<td class="nav-history"><a href="http://manpages.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/part3-3.xml?cvsroot=manpages">History</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p class="edits">
Last edited by $Author$ on $Date$. Copyright © 2011, Kristaps Dzonsons. CC BY-SA.
</p>
</body>
</html>