From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 20358 invoked from network); 14 Jan 2022 07:39:01 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 14 Jan 2022 07:39:01 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 86E9A9D4B8; Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:38:56 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5BEE69D4B2; Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:38:31 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 1DDF69D4B2; Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:38:28 +1000 (AEST) Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E6EA59D06B for ; Fri, 14 Jan 2022 17:38:26 +1000 (AEST) X-Envelope-From: arnold@skeeve.com Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id 20E7cLGk007223 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:38:22 -0700 Received: (from arnold@localhost) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id 20E7cK9S007222; Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:38:20 -0700 From: arnold@skeeve.com Message-Id: <202201140738.20E7cK9S007222@freefriends.org> X-Authentication-Warning: frenzy.freefriends.org: arnold set sender to arnold@skeeve.com using -f Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:38:20 -0700 To: robpike@gmail.com, pugs@ieee.org References: In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 7/5/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] Brian Kernighan and very early *roff history 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: tuhs@tuhs.org Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" The name 'ditroff' for Device Independent Troff was how AT&T marketed / sold / licensed it when they released it to the world. The new name was necessary to distinguish it from the original troff in V7 / System III / System V. It's understandable that inside Research no such distinction was made. Nonetheless, the V8 and V10 archives show that the C/A/T variant was still around (at least in /usr/src/cmd) under the name otroff. HTH, Arnold Rob Pike wrote: > Dennis spent quite a bit of time cleaning up the troff code in the late > 1980s, if I remember right, moving it to modern C. He got annoyed by it one > day. It was the "ditroff" variant although honestly I don't remember us > ever calling it that. It was just the current version of troff. Not sure > where the name came from. Perhaps it was us but I think of it as a foreign > name. > > -rob > > > On Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 11:05 AM Tom Lyon via TUHS > wrote: > > > Most of y'all are aware of Brian Kernighan's troff involvement. My > > understanding is that he pretty much took over nroff/troff after Joe Ossana > > died, and came out with ditroff. > > > > But Brian had much earlier involvement with non-UNIX *roff. When he was > > pursuing his PhD at Princeton, he spent a summer at MIT using CTSS and > > RUNOFF. When he came back to P'ton, he wrote a ROFF for the IBM 7094, > > later translated to the IBM 360. Many generations of students, myself > > included, use the IBM ROFF (batch, not interactive) as a much friendlier > > alternative to dumb typewriters. I don't know if 360 ROFF spread beyond > > Princeton, but I wouldn't be surprised. > > > > BTW, during my summer at Bell, nroff/troff was one of the few programs I > > could not port to the Interdata 8/32 - it was just a mess of essentially > > typeless code. I don't think Joe Ossana got around to it either before he > > died. > > > > -- > > - Tom > >