[TUHS] Re: Original print of V7 manual? / My own version of troff

[Phil Budne <phil@ultimate.com>]

Matt G wrote:
> On the subject of troff origins, in a world where troff didn't
> exist, and one purchases a C/A/T, what was the general approach to
> actually using the thing? ...  or say one of the DEC OSs?

Off-topic for this list, BUT:

At DEC/LCG (Large (36-bit) Computer Group) in the 80's when we got a
DEC LN01 (Xerox 2700 engine?) someone adapted an old typesetter
version of RUNOFF to drive it.  I heard tell that there was a dusty
C/A/T in one of the labs.

Mentions of Typeset-8, Typeset-10, and Typeset-11:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp10/typeset-10/Typeset-10_Product_Proposal_197310.pdf

Typeset-8:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp8/typeset8/
https://www.hewlettpackardhistory.com/item/at-the-turn-of-a-key/

  Digital Equipment Corporation’s TYPESET-8 pioneered the “turnkey”
  computer system, where a system was custom designed for a specific
  application and was ready to perform that application at the press
  of a button (or the turn of a key). The TYPESET-8 hardware and
  software package originally sold with the classic PDP-8 as its CPU
  and functioned as a computerized typesetting system. Digital
  Equipment Corporation joined Hewlett-Packard in 2002.

Typeset-11:
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/typeset-11/

TMS-11 is pretty sophisticated: RSX-11D with options a real disk
(RP03) or RK05, and a swap device (RF11/RS11), OCR input, VT20 (VT05 +
11/05-- first I've heard of it) but still with up to four paper tape
readers/punches.

The diagram at
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/typeset-11/EK-T11SY-OP-001_TMS-11_System_Managers_and_Usrs_Guide_Feb1975.pdf
shows direct hardware connection to a "photocomp machine", or via punched tape.

But, I haven't spotted any mention of specific typesetter hardware.

https://terminals-wiki.org/wiki/index.php/DEC_VT20 says:
The DEC VT20 terminal is a variant of the DEC VT05 terminal with special facilities for typesetting.

The VT20/B is another variant with a different enclosure.

  Two VT20/B terminals were connected to single PDP-11/05 (a variant
  of the 11/10) which was connected via RS232 to a host system, either
  a larger PDP-11 or a DECsystem-10, running Typeset-11 or
  Typeset-10. Newspapers using Typeset-10 were The Kansas City Star,
  the Chicago Tribune, and the London, Ontario, Free Press. The
  PDP-11/05 was booted by toggling in the bootstrap using the switches
  on the front of the machine, then downloading the abs loader and
  actual software through the RS232 interface from the host. The
  PDP-11/05 buffered text (news stories) downloaded from the host and
  allowed editing on the VT20. On Typeset-11 it was page oriented, a
  page would be downloaded, edited, then uploaded back to the host. On
  Typeset-10 the text was downloaded, but an associated memory system
  mirrored changes made on the text in the -11 to a copy on the
  -10. When the "save" button was pressed, the text was copied from
  associative memory into the actual text file on the
  DECsystem-10. This allowed for virtual scrolling through large files
  without having to save and load pages. The VT20s were eventually
  replaced by the VT72s, which featured a micro PDP-11 internally,
  with twice the memory of the old PDP-11/05s that controlled the
  VT20s. Interestingly enough, Digital no longer supported the
  associative memory version of the editing software, requiring page
  level editing. The Kansas City Star rewrote the PDP-11 software for
  the VT20s to run on the VT72, allowing for further virtual scrolling
  of large files, and making saving edits faster. The VT72 was
  replaced by the VT172, virtually the same terminal but in a VT100