[ale] novice question

[Arnold D. Robbins]

> I want to be able to view in X nroff files. Using apropos I found
> gs and the man page sounded like it should do the job but when I try
> gs in a console window I get: svgalib: Cannot get I/O permissions.
> and when I try on X I get:
> Not running in graphicscapable virtual console.
> 
> I do not know what these messages mean or how to find out. I did
> find a package that contain ghostview that came with my slackware
> distribution.
> 
> Finally my question: Is ghostview what I need? 
> If so what do I read to find out how in install it?
> The file I have is gnuzipped and tarred and contains ghostview.
> Do I just untar it in / as root?

There are a few choices.

1. Install both ghostscript (gs) and ghostview. Ghostview is a frontend for
   ghostscript, which actually renders the postscript.  When installed, you
   can do your viewing like so:

	groff myfile.tr > myfile.ps
	ghostview myfile.ps &

   You can then update myfile.tr and regenerate the postscript. Ghostview
   will notice that the file changed and reload it when you make it current
   or try to move to another page.

2. Gnu troff comes with a program called xditview that directly allows you
   to see things on the screen, but it reads the troff intermediate file
   format. I've never used it, so RTFM before trying it.

Method #1 has worked pretty well for me in the past.

Arnold Robbins		InfoGraphix (Star Imaging LLC, dba)
Phone: +1-404-523-4944	250 Williams Street, Suite 1120, Atlanta, GA 30303
Fax:   +1-404-523-4882	E-mail: arnold.robbins at infographix.com
"Oh! Look at all those zeros!" --- Chana Robbins, Age 3.5