1.fp 5 CW
2.de Af
3.if \\$2 .nr ;G \\$1
4.ie !\\$3 \{\
5\\f\\$1\\$3\\f\\$2
6.if !\\$4 .Af \\$2 \\$1 "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8"
7\}
8..
9.de aF
10.nr ;G \\n(.f
11.Af "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6" "\\$7" "\\$8"
12.ft \\n(;G
13..
14.de L
15.aF 5 \\n(.f "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6"
16..
17.de LR
18.aF 5 1 "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6"
19..
20.de RL
21.aF 1 5 "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" "\\$4" "\\$5" "\\$6"
22..
23.de EX		\" start example
24.ta 1i 2i 3i 4i 5i 6i
25.PP
26.RS 
27.PD 0
28.ft 5
29.nf
30..
31.de EE		\" end example
32.fi
33.ft
34.PD
35.RE
36.PP
37..
38.TH LIBAST 3
39.UC 4
40.SH NAME
41libast \- introduction to the ast library
42.SH DESCRIPTION
43This section describes the
44.I AST
45(AT&T Software Technology) library functions of the
46.B libast
47library.
48.B libast
49serves three major purposes.
50First, it presents (a subset of) POSIX/ANSI standard headers and interfaces on
51non-compliant systems.
52Second, it provides a portable base of routines that implement concepts
53common to all UNIX system variants.
54Finally, it is a forum for
55modern implementations of features present (or lacking)
56in the standard C libraries.
57Features better provided by separate libraries are omitted from
58.BR libast .
59For example, most terminal driver interface issues are left for
60special purpose libraries such as
61.IR curses (3).
62.PP
63The
64.B libast
65related header files are installed in the directories
66.LR include/ast .
67Routines that do not advertize their own headers are prototyped in
68.LR <ast.h> .
69.L <ast.h>
70is ANSI, K&R and C++ compatible and includes or defines the equivalent of
71.LR <limits.h> ,
72.LR <stddef.h> ,
73.LR <stdlib.h> ,
74.LR <sys/types.h> ,
75.L <string.h>
76and
77.LR <unistd.h> .
78Other libraries that depend on 
79.B libast
80may also have headers installed in the
81.L include/ast
82directories.
83.SH FILES
84.nf
85include/ast		the \fBast\fP package header directory
86lib/libast.a		the \fBlibast\fP library
87lib/libast-g.a		the \fBlibast\fP library compiled for debugging
88lib/libast-pg.a		the \fBlibast\fP library compiled for profiling
89lib/libast.so.4.0	the \fBlibast\fP shared library
90.fi
91.SH "SEE ALSO"
92intro(3),
93intro(2),
94cc(1)
95.SH CAVEATS
96The library documentation is still under construction.
97Yes, some of it has been in this state for 20 years.
98Thank goodness our commands self-document.
99