From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 23 02:12:27 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 81E481065674 for ; Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:12:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matt@gsicomp.on.ca) Received: from daisy2.compar.com (mail1.compar.com [216.208.38.140]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 50C3F8FC1A for ; Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:12:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matt@gsicomp.on.ca) Received: from localhost (localhost.compar.com [127.0.0.1]) by daisy2.compar.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C2AF13C477; Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:12:26 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at compar.com Received: from unknown by localhost (amavisd-new, unix socket) id 0gamNHVTqnq2; Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:12:23 -0400 (EDT) Received: from hermes (CPE00062566c7bb-CM001ac3584898.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com [99.255.62.215]) by daisy2.compar.com (Postfix) with SMTP id 89BA513C476; Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:12:23 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <10BDBC68DA414886A21749B430CCFFC6@hermes> From: "Matt Emmerton" To: , "Gonzalo Nemmi" References: <200810222335.26022.gnemmi@gmail.com> Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:12:23 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5579 X-Mailman-Approved-At: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:46:33 +0000 Cc: Subject: Re: man -t odd page size X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:12:27 -0000 > On Wednesday 22 October 2008 10:38:40 pm Polytropon wrote: >> Hi! >> >> On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:56:20 -0200, Gonzalo Nemmi >> wrote: >> > Is there an easy way to get man to format the man page using plain good >> > ISO 216 standard A4 page size? >> >> My suggfestion for an attempt would be to first strip any control >> characters from the output of "man -P cat " and then pipe >> it to an ASCII to PDF converter (a2ps, if I remember correctly); >> this would remove any markups, I know, but would lead to a PDF >> output using the system's default paper size, A4 (I hope). >> >> I know this is not the best idea, but it should be accomplishable >> without many problems. A better idea would be to write a simple >> filter that convert the man page (including formatting characters) >> into LaTeX source and then run it through pdflatex. > > Exactly .. you got it just the way I wanted .. after your explanantion, > the > question _begs_ to be asked: do we, citizens of ISO 216 adopting > countries, > have to walk that cumbersome path in order to get something as simple as > an > ISO compliant document?? > > Shouldn't it be the other way around??? Perhaps, but since the roots of *BSD are in the USA, letter was a sensible default (at the time). Now, if a collection of FreeBSD members from ISO 216 adopting companies wanted to figure out a way to put "default paper size" into some kind of locale option that man (and other tools) could use, then that would go a long way towards reducing the pain. -- Matt