Q:	I need a program to convert LaTeX to troff.  

Sorry, I don't know of one, but texi2roff could be used as as template
to write such a translator.

Q:	I am using -mm and nroff squawks and aborts.

The problem here is that the -mm macro package regards keeps as a type
of display, unlike -ms and -me.  The rules are that displays cannot be
nested.  Common texinfo sequences such as:

	@group
	@example
	@end example
	@end group

generate nested displays, so nroff objects.  You can deal with this by
either deleting the @group and @end group commands in the particular
places that they cause trouble, or using a different macro package.

Q:	I am using -ms and I get two copies of each heading in the output.

You have an older version of the -ms macros which lacks .XS .XE  and .PX
macros.  troff ignores macros it doesn't recognise, so it is passing the
macro argument through as text, instead of saving them for the table of
contents.  You aren't getting a table of contents at the end of the document
either, right?  See if -msnew works on your system.  You could also try
another macro package, such as -me.

Q:	I am using the -mm macros to format gcc.texinfo.  Nroff bails out
complaining that there is no list active.

This is an interaction between what is probably an error (or maybe a clever
trick) in the texinfo document and some error checking (or error correcting)
code in the mm macros.  Somewhere around line 300 in gcc.texinfo you will find:

@iftex
@heading NO WARRANTY
@end iftex
@ifinfo
@center NO WARRANTY
@end ifinfo

What's happening is that the author uses @heading in the middle of an itemized
list. Perhaps he does this in order to get NO WARRANTY centred, bold and
larger font, since it doesnt make sense to start a new subsection in the
middle of a list.  texi2roff translates @heading into troff for "unnumbered
section", but -mm detects that something is wrong, and nroff emits the error
message and exits.

The easiest fix is to change the @heading to @center.  That line won't
look particularly beautiful, but the rest of the document will be processed.
I'll probably change the interpretation of @heading in the tables.  Note that
the other macro packages dont complain about this so another solution is to
use -ms or -me if you have them.  

Q:	The table of contents looks icky - font changes in headings in the
document get carried over to the table of contents, but don't get changed
back properly.

The .ds HF 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 texi2roff emits forces all headers to be in bold,
which is how texinfo.tex formats them.  Unfortunately it screws up when the
headers are reprinted in the table of contents.  

One remedy is to replace \fB with \fP (return to Previous) in those parts
of tablemm that generate .H directives.  This is a kludge, but often works.
The problem with \fP is that it is a toggle not a stack, so if font-change-
causing commands are nested, you can still end up with "stuck" font trouble.  
Before I put in the font stack I kludged by using \fR instead of \fP, since
roman is least likely to be offensive when incorrect.

If anyone has a good solution for this problem, I'd really like to hear it!

Q:	I got texi2roff and ran some gnu document through it and it
looks horrible.

	- Are you sure it is a Texinfo file? (not latex, info, etc)
	(Does it have a line like: 
		\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
	near the top?)

	- Did you use the same macro package for texi2roff and n/troff?

	- Are you sure you are running the programs correctly?
	(See the man page for correct syntax in using these programs.)

	- Has someone hacked your troff macros (especially, has someone
	defined the "__" or " -_" macros)?

Q:	I got texi2roff and ran some gnu document through it and it
looks a little funny.

	(See also suggestions above)

> 	1.  Title is very poorly centered.
>                                tar
> 
>                     The GNU tape archive

I suspect nroff is a little confused about font size when it tries to center
the title, which is supposed to be 10 points larger.

Q:	You mention in the Readme that you can use texi2roff to search and
scroll through texinfo files. How do you do this?

What I mean by searching and scrolling through texinfo files with
texi2roff is really very simple.  Suppose I want to use the -ms
macros and browse or search a formatted version of foo.texinfo.  I
just use:
	texi2roff -ms foo.texinfo | nroff -ms | less

"less" is a pager similar to "more", but with the ability to search 
forward and backward, scroll in either direction, and generally
accept vi-like commands.  If it isnt present on your system, perhaps
someone can install it for you or you may have another similar pager
available.

If your machine isnt very fast, or you plan to refer to the manual
repeatedly, you may prefer to put the formatted version in a file
(e.g. texi2roff -ms foo.texinfo | nroff -ms > foo.ms ) and use less
or another pager (or even an editor) to search and scroll around in it.  
If a lot of people at your site would like to do this, perhaps formatted
copies of the manuals can be kept in some directory where they can be
used by everyone.

I'm sorry if the documentation led you to believe there was more to 
it than this!

Q:	Can texi2roff generate -man pages?

Both man(1) and catman(1) have a -T option to format the man page with
a macro package other than -man.  So you could convert your texinfo
document with texi2roff -ms, for example, and then install it with 
catman -ms.
 
All this does, of course, is to install the thing in the man page hierarchy.
A unix man page is different in content and purpose from a gnu manual.
Extracting the relevant few dozen lines of man page information from a
500 page gnu manual is an AI problem.

Q:	I have some kind of old troff that only knows about C/A/T
typesetters, so I am using nroff and sending the output to a laser 
(or other) printer.  The output has weird characters and is sometimes
off by half a page in line up.

You can get rid of those ugly ^[9 ^[8 characters by piping your nroff
output through the col(1) command.  Use 'col -b'.  e.g.:

   ( texi2roff -i -me bison.texinfo | nroff -me | col -b > doc ) > & index

If piping the nroff output through col doesn't help that problem, try running
it into a file, (i.e. 'doc' in the example above), then using your favorite
editor, cut the titlepage and other fore matter away from the main body of
the document and print the two pieces separately.

