From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 8bc094cb for ; Thu, 28 Nov 2019 03:45:26 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 4254A9B7EF; Thu, 28 Nov 2019 13:45:25 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 05B9893D8C; Thu, 28 Nov 2019 13:43:57 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id EE17D93D8C; Thu, 28 Nov 2019 13:43:54 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 92EC193D59 for ; Thu, 28 Nov 2019 13:43:54 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id ABD6435E0B8; Wed, 27 Nov 2019 19:43:53 -0800 (PST) Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2019 19:43:53 -0800 From: Larry McVoy To: Dave Horsfall Message-ID: <20191128034353.GG18200@mcvoy.com> References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Subject: Re: [TUHS] In Memoriam: J.F.Ossanna X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" I'll say this every time his name comes up, it's one of the great regrets of my life that I did not get to meet this guy. I think troff is genius, you can ask me why and I'll tell you, don't want to bore the list with a ton of arcane, but useful if you care about it, stuff. Troff was amazing, just look at what was built on it, eqn, pic, tbl, and more. I so wish I could have met this guy and told him how much his work meant to me. I've used troff for everything, I have a perl script that took troff -ms input and produced a web site. I ran a company for 18 years, our logo was done in troff. I ran a conference that did most of the papers in LaTex and I encouraged troff and the people who use troff came to me and said "this was so much easier than LaTex". Yep. So he may not have the fame that Ken and Brian and Dennis and Doug and others have but he's one of my heros. Along with all of them and other Bell Labs folks. RIP Joseph Ossanna, you are missed. I wish I had met you. On Thu, Nov 28, 2019 at 07:53:54AM +1100, Dave Horsfall wrote: > We lost J.F. Ossanna on this day in 1977; he had a hand in developing Unix, > and was responsible for "roff" and its descendants. Remember him, the next > time you see "jfo" in Unix documentation. > > He also accomplished a lot more, too much to summarise here. > > -- Dave -- --- Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com http://www.mcvoy.com/lm