DMP: Ditroff to MPX conversion

DMP converts device-independent Troff (ditroff) output files into low-level MetaPost commands in a so-called MPX file. This program is generally invoked by MakeMPX (see section MakeMPX: Support MetaPost labels). Synopsis:

dmp [ditroff-file [mpxfile]]

If ditroff-file is not specified, input comes from standard input; and if mpxfile is not specified, output goes to standard output.

DMP was written to process the output of a Troff pipeline fed the output of mpto -troff (see section MPto: Extract labels from MetaPost input). DMP understands all the `Dc' graphics functions that dpost does, but it ignores `x X' device control functions such as `x X SetColor:...', `x X BeginPath:', and `x X DrawPath:...'.

The available font names are defined in the support file `trfonts.map', which DMP looks for along the MPSUPPORT path.

Another support file `trchars.adj', also looked for along the MPSUPPORT path, contains a character adjustment table which should reflect the shift amounts found in the standard PostScript prologue for Troff and dpost found in the TRFONTS directory. Such an adjustment table is unnecessary for some Troff implementations, in which case `trchars.adj' should be replaced by an empty file--but it must still exist.

DMP was written for one particular Troff implementation, and it unfortunately has many built-in assumptions about the output and fonts file formats used by Troff, which may not be satisfied in other environments. In particular, GNU groff uses some extensions in its file formats described in groff_font(5) and groff_out(5) which make its output completely unusable for DMP. On the other hand, the Troff version found in Sun Solaris 2.x, and perhaps other systems derived from System V R4, works fine with the default settings.

If you run into trouble and want to adapt DMP to other systems, you might have to try the following (this is primarily for hackers):

• If DMP complains about a missing font table (e.g., `Cannot find TR'), your Troff may not support the device `post'. Check troff(1) for the devices supported by your Troff and set the TROFF environment variable appropriately (see above). Also, locate the appropriate font directory and set the TRFONTS variable as needed.
• If DMP complains about a missing font description file (e.g., `Font TR was not in map file'), your version of Troff may be using internal font names different from those in the distributed `trfonts.map'; e.g., TR and TI instead of R and I for Times-Roman and Times-Italic. In this case, you may have to adapt `trfonts.map' and perhaps also `trchars.adj' in the MetaPost support directory (`texmf/metapost/support' by default).
• If DMP still complains that it cannot parse the font description files or the Troff output (e.g., `TR has a bad line in its description file', you are probably out of luck and have to hack the DMP program (in `web2c/mpware/dmp.c'). Such problems may be caused by subtle differences in the file formats, such as use of tabs vs. spaces as field separators or decimal vs. octal vs. hex format for font metric data. A reasonably good description of the expected Troff file formats can be found in AT&T technical report CSTR-54 (Troff User's Manual, Revised 1992). Documentation on the subtle differences in other Troff implementation is harder to find except for GNU groff, where it's all documented in the above-mentioned groff_font(5) and groff_out(5). Any contributions to improve the portability of DMP or to make it work with GNU groff are welcome, of course.

(Some of the above description was edited from the `dmp.c' source file, written by John Hobby.)

The only options are `--help' and `--version' (see section Common options).

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