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## 1 Introduction

This version of WoMan should run with GNU Emacs 20.3 or later on any platform. It has not been tested, and may not run, with any other version of Emacs. It was developed primarily on various versions of Microsoft Windows, but has also been tested on MS-DOS, and various versions of UNIX and GNU/Linux.

WoMan is distributed with GNU Emacs. In addition, the current source code and documentation files are available from the WoMan web server.

WoMan implements a subset of the formatting performed by the Emacs `man` (or `manual-entry`) command to format a Unix-style manual page (usually abbreviated to man page) for display, but without calling any external programs. It is intended to emulate the whole of the `roff -man` macro package, plus those `roff` requests (see Background) that are most commonly used in man pages. However, the emulation is modified to include the reformatting done by the Emacs `man` command. No hyphenation is performed.

Advantages
  Much more direct, does not require any external programs. Supports completion on man page names.
Disadvantages
  Not a complete emulation. Currently no support for `eqn` or `tbl`. Slightly slower for large man pages (but usually faster for small- and medium-size pages).

This browser works quite well on simple well-written man files. It works less well on idiosyncratic files that “break the rules” or use the more obscure `roff` requests directly. Current test results are available in the file `woman.status`.

WoMan supports the use of compressed man files via `auto-compression-mode` by turning it on if necessary. But you may need to adjust the user option `woman-file-compression-regexp`. See Interface Options.

Brief help on the WoMan interactive commands and user options, all of which begin with the prefix `woman-` (or occasionally `WoMan-`), is available most easily by loading WoMan and then either running the command `woman-mini-help` or selecting the WoMan menu option ‘`Mini Help`’.

WoMan is (of course) still under development! Please let me know what doesn't work—I am adding and improving functionality as testing shows that it is necessary. Guidance on reporting bugs is given below. See Reporting Bugs.