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=-1.0 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 74ca6bea for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:58:02 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id E9807A1CEF; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:58:00 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F101A1CE2; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:57:47 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 560CCA1CE2; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:57:45 +1000 (AEST) Received: from knecht.neophilic.com (knecht.neophilic.com [70.36.157.234]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0C798A1CE1 for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2018 10:57:45 +1000 (AEST) Received: from rieux.neophilic.com (rieux.neophilic.com [10.0.2.35]) (authenticated bits=0) by knecht.neophilic.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPSA id wAS0vhOC086580 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 bits=128 verify=NO); Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:57:43 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from eric@neophilic.com) To: "G. Branden Robinson" References: <7a632484-cdc7-7c59-7077-7a2c752045da@spamtrap.tnetconsulting.net> <4c36b2b2-76df-435f-27bc-e1feb0647f36@case.edu> <201811162113.wAGLDGiQ031455@darkstar.fourwinds.com> <201811190311.wAJ3BDHR028154@darkstar.fourwinds.com> <6a179556-322c-8ba5-b957-5ae7a03ec610@neophilic.com> <20181128003638.6jwx6fs4zxwzaote@crack.deadbeast.net> From: Eric Allman Openpgp: preference=signencrypt Autocrypt: addr=tuhs@eric.allman.name; prefer-encrypt=mutual; keydata= xsDiBDu8yuARBADuTa8bzS4Er9urm7XPu5vtrRRJMoY2/mvuQeRHpvHF6ncUF2ZC9nAkIYb6 Upl9UOCZxG6uwxzzzSnxeHg7aAVY/TEN4FukuN1X1aGvol/V8PM1nV5vyLFk/Tf/Q/yoN/w8 tK9dp/O2EflChD/i/J9vWIppg3rVKK6FPW4CuqqaiwCg/ytVY7yJHZCCrhRioLBtKaCGUB0D /20dzSKBUdOxSvfg3NKt7gojiqulxmNbRkkjuhbKMRiQ0jjt16L9h+zlS1mXNT91/Ds08WtF 99Z3YffTflcbU9uBea6AJhzIaYVHwCJsNyP+rGE+9CM1YZpwm5k/ZBr7iOr0tkI1o39JRg75 Ih18gnPVXovH+VhsXRGtxTqn7+dmBADmmsHL8u/qbBWKIC3TYpXH8rJBIJXHwvOrI4HbEvAh xzD/Zy6yGMgiTZ8quGHzmdm1kD53s/TVcgEo/XWlgy9Cr05tU16UGEx/Q38K4IetCTGjhOvY a0+I012p5ZK1KqnIjUuCAy7VgGy75sBPKzYeUjJ1yAO7+EMXaZP6Olejn80iRXJpYyBQLiBB bGxtYW4gPGVyaWNAU2VuZG1haWwuQ09NPsJOBBARAgAOBAsDAQICGQEFAju8yuEACgkQMRmA Uc8aTSwR/gCfcq/84OdF6e6hkUQQbVFPqsxS6N0An13gLkFVkPJrMs+5PK5ogl0k7yW8zsFN BDu8yuAQCAD2Qle3CH8IF3KiutapQvMF6PlTETlPtvFuuUs4INoBp1ajFOmPQFXz0AfGy0Op lK33TGSGSfgMg71l6RfUodNQ+PVZX9x2Uk89PY3bzpnhV5JZzf24rnRPxfx2vIPFRzBhznzJ Zv8V+bv9kV7HAarTW56NoKVyOtQa8L9GAFgr5fSI/VhOSdvNILSd5JEHNmszbDgNRR0PfIiz HHxbLY7288kjwEPwpVsYjY67VYy4XTjTNP18F1dDox0YbN4zISy1Kv884bEpQBgRjXyEpwpy 1obEAxnIByl6ypUM2Zafq9AKUJsCRtMIPWakXUGfnHy9iUsiGSa6q6Jew1XpMgs7AAICB/0d vsPKvMXcKls8RHeYcleBEQEgXovGaTNo8R3ZVjPcDUKcQbfWMP8w5qJKf36hvBsjEgfVJW7r lKUtA82H66ivnAgAqWZMgfROKSHwaTFScFWLR8lG5e7sd2OZ4xqDe6+BpYlmJocR2riughz8 B7p1RhINqpfslZ0QEdB/fscntjoBvohtjG80BwB/tB6gnWHsjd9Cv6QfiNYOzAWaQo+BmcFq kmTYwrXFFNWHjOWfCUyjg2kqztl0DHjmZ7AzgHgTEnPku2TlMXwaGbHZKDOwLP/dteywinK6 SEOW2HrQBMxkMQGEZWtOH6hjszJtkqn+V4O0c92d4FjaQhvleSL7wj8DBRg7vMrgMRmAUc8a TSwRAklEAJ44uotW5aUoI1uMu94xIkLeCI6iWACg1IbChgU5suH4a+T68hfH8Jwa140= Message-ID: <5684e5c4-f8ad-0b32-20f1-b4375733f2d2@neophilic.com> Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2018 16:57:43 -0800 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.9.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20181128003638.6jwx6fs4zxwzaote@crack.deadbeast.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] man-page style X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 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" On 2018-11-27 4:36 PM, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > Hi Eric, > > I've been working on groff, and a while back, amid tidying up the > groff_me(7) man page, I added the following to the Notes section: > > . > It is not known for certain what the \(lqe\(rq in \(lqme\(rq stands for, > but one can infer a derivation from the first initial of Eric P.\& > Allman (then of the University of California), who wrote the original > technical papers documenting the package. > . > > I've done some digging but could not locate an authoritative statement. > Would you like to make one? That's basically correct, but there is a back story. When I started writing the -me macros it began as something in my private tree (I don't remember what I called it). Then some other folks on the INGRES project wanted to use it, but our system admin at the time didn't want to dicker with the system namespace at the behest of a mere undergraduate, so he didn't like anything that was actually descriptive lest people think it was "official". He finally consented to "-meric" (which I always hated), since it was obviously non-official. By the time my macros became popular around Berkeley it got shortened to "-me", much to my relief. Of course, if AT&T had been willing to let Berkeley have -ms then most likely -me would never have happened at all. Without a macro package, nroff/troff is basically unusable; -me stepped into the vacuum. Amusingly enough, one of the most popular features of -me was ".th" mode, which set all the parameters to match the official constraints for a U.C. Berkeley Ph.D. thesis. It was guaranteed to get past the "dragon lady" who would reject the thesis if the margins were wrong. eric