From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.2 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, DKIM_VALID_AU,DKIM_VALID_EF,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,T_SCC_BODY_TEXT_LINE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [IPv6:2600:3c01:e000:146::1]) by inbox.vuxu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8DCCF295CA for ; Wed, 14 Feb 2024 22:04:21 +0100 (CET) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2E754103C; Thu, 15 Feb 2024 07:04:07 +1000 (AEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=tuhs.org; s=dkim; t=1707944647; h=from:from:reply-to:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date: message-id:message-id:to:to:cc:mime-version:mime-version: content-type:content-type: content-transfer-encoding:content-transfer-encoding:list-id:list-help: list-owner:list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-post; bh=gyTJN9E/35McrnZXj+yx1QbLk/tWIWElqE7XNzopA+4=; b=U6zK6Dz9Cz2eixnDOiCwyAG9wgKPoFGz/4oL7rIVeBjh22GrM7H5VjnQSIIP8raUPRBdb4 7VA7Gqn/MzPsekR6Zyd3nmuiApcP9ixT+Vsf3t1pfZ9FW6WqKZF1OXpyYLYJfPxQXtDkiF ggZW30itH+xlk/wJDH4mdJ3kSBHkMJE= Received: from mail-40132.protonmail.ch (mail-40132.protonmail.ch [185.70.40.132]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 84ACC40ED5 for ; Thu, 15 Feb 2024 07:03:58 +1000 (AEST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=protonmail.com; s=protonmail3; t=1707944633; x=1708203833; bh=gyTJN9E/35McrnZXj+yx1QbLk/tWIWElqE7XNzopA+4=; h=Date:To:From:Subject:Message-ID:Feedback-ID:From:To:Cc:Date: Subject:Reply-To:Feedback-ID:Message-ID:BIMI-Selector; b=lne1XYgnDzlv76pVafpE7y4qncH/FFV1xaDILY4o0vRikTipFq+XGqxtTDQW8NBvq pGgPRm56xVrDcQ476o5ZYRAXLZdwjdr28mjDPyIXjL7lRvT7ycIxZzZ4iO5y3vz6F5 eqpbbXT4B1tj7URJiApQf5WXqbr9+/WihP2k8iSlXiOd5JPJMYCSj37/pSsMmew10F iwBwTxWv3n0dnor8E0RC+jXF+5CrPsLhBEU8n2pXUTDCRR1XY2ROP0FxrrVMAkjrkt YcW/bR34BeG/OBjCqBdRkAUIla/KSVJ2I3NTY093lKGzjm9g9sp+06ob0nPMRRaKVP 8/vijf5LOM9JA== Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 21:03:43 +0000 To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Message-ID: <-OBZicoqgBL38VHqzUw1mUOFaa_Elrz3STodhVX8bwiZUcr80cw17pI58GoYFfc46nJd9A-pcDHfSya92TETrjg_piTVJfxTN4ghX8m8t1k=@protonmail.com> Feedback-ID: 35591162:user:proton MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-ID-Hash: 5CSJFZ4SOV77QJZLQTFGAB2ME6DNIAGI X-Message-ID-Hash: 5CSJFZ4SOV77QJZLQTFGAB2ME6DNIAGI X-MailFrom: segaloco@protonmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Census of Early (Pre-C Kernel) UNIX Documents List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: From: segaloco via TUHS Reply-To: segaloco Hello everyone, I'm currently laying the groundwork for a restart of my man= diff project, expanding it to encompass not just the manual-proper, but als= o the documents leading to the "Documents for UNIX" collections as well. T= hus far I'm about halfway done on a ROFF restoration of the earliest surviv= ing draft of Dennis Ritchie's The UNIX Time-Sharing System paper[1], recons= tructed from existing, later NROFF text and ROFF conventions from the Third= Edition manual[2]. Thus far, the additional documents I've found explicitly referenced in the = earlier days are: User's Reference Manual to B - K. Thompson[3] C Reference Manual - D. M. Ritchie[4 - see note] M6 Manual - A. D. Hall[5] ROFF Manual - J. F. Ossanna[6 - see note] A Manual for the TMG Compiler-writing Language - M. D. McIlroy[7] UNIX Assembler Manual - D. M. Ritchie[8 - see note] NROFF Users' Manual - J. F. Ossanna[9 - see note] YACC Manual - S. C. Johnson[10 - see note] Aside from these references, there are two other B papers, one a tutorial[1= 1] by B. W. Kernighan and the other a MH-TSS reference by S. C. Johnson[12]= . I don't think I saw either referenced in the manual-proper. The latter = then makes further reference to a "Bell Laboratories BCPL" by R. H. Canaday= and D. M. Ritchie, although I suspect this is lost, I can't find it. Anywho, my plan is to take any known ROFF/NROFF sources for the above docum= ents and reconstruct the earliest versions possible and then add them to my= revamped repository in the timeframes that they first start showing up as = references in the manual to derive a more holistic view of the creation of = manuals and guides in the early days. A few matters prompted me to start o= ver: 1. Noticing that there is direct lineage between some of the text in the Un= ixEditionZero paper and later manual pages like as(I), I want to capture th= e base text as far back as possible, which in this case would mean ensuring= a commit in the chain captures the transfer of the text from the UnixEditi= onZero paper to as(I) to give a more complete history. 2. Al Kossow has now scanned and preserved a UNIX Program Generic II manual= , meaning I no longer have to make as many assumptions about what changed a= nd what didn't in the USG/Research split. Thus far, assumptions about the = Program Generic line have been based on the extant MERT manual (which in tu= rn is described as deriving from the Program Generic III manual.) 3. The picture of PWB/2.0 is becoming a bit clearer as time goes on, but is= still murky, and that has implications for the changes between the Sixth E= dition (where my current mandiff repo[13] ends) and the Seventh Edition. R= ather than having to go back and redo a bunch of work, I think the first pa= ss can stand on its own as a source of guidance on redoing this. 4. The cleanliness of the repository history is not to my liking, there are= several instances of multiple commits across pages related to some larger,= holistic change that would really be easier to study if they were in one. = Starting over, I now have a much clearer picture of V1->V6 that I can use = to produce a tighter history. Anywho, to summarize what I'm looking for feedback on, first, are there any= major documents I'm omitting from this investigation? Any particular tech= nical memoranda that are crucial to the big picture? Additionally, is anyo= ne aware whether USG Program Generic I (or earlier?) had a formal edition o= f the Programmer's Manual or if they would've just referred folks to the re= search manual prior to PG II? With the latter question I'm trying to deter= mine if USG manual history starts with the PG II manual Al Kossow has scann= ed or if I should be considering a hole in the record where a PG I manual g= oes. Thanks for following along, hopefully getting this groundwork in place will= ensure the next go at this project is even more fruitful than the last! - Matt G. --- References --- 1 - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/McIlroy_v0/UnixEdit= ionZero-Threshold_OCR.pdf 2 - https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=3DV3/man 3 - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/kbman.html 4 - I may have a copy of the earliest version of this I can identify. The = earliest version I can find online is dated January 15th, 1974 (https://www= .bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/cman74.pdf) and contains the text "C is also ava= ilable on the HIS 6070 computer at Murray Hill and on the IBM System/370 at= Holmdel" whereas this particular copy of the paper states "C is also avail= able on the HIS 6070 computer at Murray Hill, using a compiler written by A= . Snyder and currently maintained by S. C. Johnson. A compiler for the IBM= System/360/370 series is under construction." The manual is TROFF printou= t and isn't formatted as a memorandum like the link included here. Referen= ces to the C Reference Manual begin to show up as early as the Second Editi= on manual, although these imply the C manual is still being written. Does = anyone know if the C Reference Manual started in ROFF and then moved to NRO= FF some time before the earliest copies we're aware of? In any case, I int= end to scan this copy, it just hasn't bubbled up in my project list yet. 5 - https://tuhs.pdp-11.org.ru/Documentation/TechReports/Bell_Labs/CSTRs/2.= pdf 6 - I have a copy that defers from the one I could find here: https://www.c= s.dartmouth.edu/~doug/roff71/roff71.pdf It is not in technical memorandum f= ormat and also may be missing a few pages (in mine, the tutorial ends with = the "Translation" section but the linked document contains a couple more pa= ragraphs on page offset (.po), merge patterns, and an envoi (conclusion). = The most striking difference is that the linked paper is Doug's version for= TSS, but the paper I've got lists the invocation in the UNIX style (roff += N -M name1 name2 ...) and is likely representative of the UNIX version with= Joe Ossanna's work. Doug if you catch this and believe the attribution on= this page (https://wiki.tuhs.org/doku.php?id=3Dsystems:2nd_edition) should= have your by-line or both you and jfo, happy to make the edit. The text o= f the UNIX version I have does seem to descend from your original paper. B= y the way, an even earlier version of this paper for runoff is available he= re (https://manpages.bsd.lv/history/runoff69.low.pdf) 7 - https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Research/1972_stuff/tmg.pdf 8 - This is first referenced in the Third Edition manual. Some of the text= may derive from the second Appendix of the "UnixEditionZero" paper linked = above, the manpage certainly has influence from that document. Not sure if= any of that implies the manual may have started in ROFF, but in any case, = constitutes an early reference. 9 - This reference first appears, verifiably, in the Third Edition. Howeve= r, the Second Edition manual does list nroff(I) in the TOC, but this page i= s not actually included in the extant PDF in the archive. In any case, the= earliest version of the NROFF Users' Manual I'm aware of is the Second Edi= tion, dated 9/11/74. Is any such First Edition extant on the public record= ? 10 - The earliest reference to this manual I can find is in the Third Editi= on. Not sure if there are any earlier specimens than the text in the Sixth= Edition sources. 11 - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/btut.html 12 - https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/bref.html 13 - https://gitlab.com/segaloco/mandiff