ant.1

.TH ANT 1
.SH NAME
ant \- a typesetting system, "Ant is not TeX"
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ant
[
.I options
]
.IR file ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.ds A \s-2ANT\s0
.ds T T\v'.25m'E\v'-.25m'X
.ds L L\s-2\v'-.25m'A\v'.25m'\s0\*T
.I ant
is a typesetting system inspired by \*T. Although \*T does a very good
job when typesetting mathematical articles and books - the task it has
been designed for - it can become very difficult, cumbersome, or even
impossible to meet the typographical requirements of texts outside this
narrow scope. For instance, the current draft of the new output routine
for \*L consists of more than 100 pages. Unfortunately, it is also very
difficult to extend the functionality of \*T since its source code is a
total mess. Even after 20 years there are only versions with minor
modifications available.
.LP
For these reasons I decided to rewrite it from
scratch aiming for a simple, clean, and modular design. In particular
it is easily possible to replace parts of \*A with other implementations,
say, adding an XML parser, output routines for PDF files, or a different
page layout algorithm. The current version of \*A implements all the major
features of \*T but a lot of minor things are still missing. In addition,
\*A provides several improvements over \*T:
.TP
.B *
a saner macro language (no catcodes);
.TP
.B *
a builtin high-level scripting language;
.TP
.B *
UNICODE support;
.TP
.B *
support for various font formats including Type1, TrueType, and OpenType;
.TP
.B *
partial support for advanced OpenType features;
.TP
.B *
support for colour and graphics;
.TP
.B *
simple page layout specifications;
.TP
.B *
river detection.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-\-help
writes a help message to standard error.
.TP
.BI \-\-format= format
selects the output format. Supported are
.BR dvi ,
.BR xdvi ,
.BR pdf " (default),
.BR ps " (PostScript),
and
.BR svg .
The latter two are only partially implemented.
.TP
.BI \-\-src\-specials
enables the generation of source specials.
.TP
.BI \-\-debug= flags
enables debug messages.
.I flags
is a combination of the following letters:
.RS
.IP a
AL commands;
.IP b
AL bytecode;
.IP e
the typesetting engine;
.IP g
galley breaking;
.IP i
the current input;
.IP l
line breaking;
.IP m
macro expansion;
.IP p
page layout;
.IP s
various stacks.
.RE
.SH AUTHOR
.nf
Achim Blumensath,
.SH SEE ALSO
.B http://ant.berlios.de/
.sp
"ANT, A Typesetting System",
Achim Blumensath.