This is a great idea but it includes diversions which took me a long time to get happy with and I'm a huge troff fan. The person who asked is so far away from understanding those.
I don't want to discourage that person, just saying that you need to use troff for a while to get it. I'm happy to help you get it. On Thu, May 26, 2022 at 08:49:50PM -0400, Douglas McIlroy wrote: > I don't see how to typeset a multilingual text > parallel by page strictly within groff. > However, suppose > > 1. the input comes from two different files > that contain synch points. > 2 corresponding synch points must appear > on facing pages. > 3. segments between successive sync points > always fit on one page. > > Then a small non-troff program can merge > synchronized segments alternately from the > two files. > > To process the merged file, direct segments > by pairs into diversions named, say, > A1, B1, A2, B2, ... When the sums of lengths > of either Ai or Bi overflow a page, emit > the diversions in order A1, A2 ... .bp > B1, B2 ... .bp. Rename the overflowing pair > A1, B1 and continue. > > Synch-point macros end, measure, and > start diversions, invoking an overflow > macro as necessary. -- --- Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com http://www.mcvoy.com/lm
