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Branden Robinson" X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.3693.40.0.1.81) Subject: Re: [TUHS] *roff history as told to GNU 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" On Jan 12, 2022, at 13:06, G. Branden Robinson = wrote: > I've been collecting a detailed narrative history not just of the = *roff > _programs_ but also of the development on the language in the roff(7) > manual page. =20 Before RUNOFF was Peter Samson=E2=80=99s TJ-2 in 1963. It seems to have = been the first program that incorporated the idea of input lines being = interpreted as either control (with a prefix of a dot or other = character) or text. I dug up this history when I wrote =E2=80=98The Electric Typesetter: The = Origins of Computing in Typography=E2=80=99 for the American Printing = History Association=E2=80=99s journal _Printing History_ (issue 21, = 2017). Sadly they don=E2=80=99t have online archives; my PDF of the = article is here: = https://johnlabovitz.com/publications/The-electric-typesetter--The-origins= -of-computing-in-typography.pdf It=E2=80=99s about more than markup languages, but here=E2=80=99s the = relevant bit: > The earliest known text-formatting software, TJ-2, was created by = MIT-trained computer scientist Peter Samson in 1963. Its design and = architecture set the stage for text-formatting and typesetting programs = for the next several decades. >=20 > [=E2=80=A6] >=20 > TJ-2 read lines of text as its input. Each line was collected and = formatted to make justified paragraphs (of monospaced type). However, if = a line started with a special control code (=E2=80=9Coverbar,=E2=80=9D = in the lingo of the PDP-1 system, its host computer), the program = interpreted it as a command. There were only a few commands, including a = primitive line-centering mode, some simplistic indentation, and a = command that left a specific amount of vertical space for a figure = (e.g., illustration) to be inserted later. >=20 > [=E2=80=A6] >=20 > Note that TJ-2 did not interface with a phototypesetter =E2=80=94 or = any typesetter. Its output was destined to be printed on what was = essentially an automatic typewriter outfitted only with monospaced = fonts. While this seems a limitation, perhaps it was a necessary = constraint at the time. But the TJ-2 went on to inspire (directly or = indirectly) a long branch of typesetting software beginning with RUNOFF = (=E2=80=9CA Right-Justifying Type Out Program=E2=80=9D) in 1964, a = program that used =E2=80=9Ccontrol words scattered in the text [to] = provide detailed control over the format=E2=80=9D of text. RUNOFF = substituted TJ-2=E2=80=99s proprietary =E2=80=9Coverbar=E2=80=9D control = code with a simple period, and expanded the set of commands to produce = line and page breaks and folios (page numbers). Then, in a fairly = confusing list of technical begats over a decade or so, RUNOFF = (capitals) led to =E2=80=9Crunoff=E2=80=9D (lowercase), then to = =E2=80=9Crf,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9Croff,=E2=80=9D =E2=80=9Cnroff,=E2=80=9D = and =E2=80=9Ctroff=E2=80=9D =E2=80=94 all software programs that = utilized the same basic idea as TJ-2. Links from the footnotes: TJ-2: http://www.dpbsmith.com/tj2.html RUNOFF: http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/CC-244.html Best, =E2=80=94John