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* [TUHS] In Memoriam: J.F.Ossanna
@ 2018-11-27 21:47 Dave Horsfall
  2018-11-27 23:08 ` Ken Thompson via TUHS
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 26+ messages in thread
From: Dave Horsfall @ 2018-11-27 21:47 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society

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.

-- Dave

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 26+ messages in thread
* Re: [TUHS] In Memoriam: J.F.Ossanna
@ 2018-11-28 13:09 Noel Chiappa
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 26+ messages in thread
From: Noel Chiappa @ 2018-11-28 13:09 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: tuhs; +Cc: jnc

    > From: Larry McVoy

    > (*) I know that nroff was "new run off" and it came from somewhere, MIT?
    > Some old system ... I've never seen docs for the previous system and I
    > kinda think Joe took it to the next level.

Definitely!

The original 'runoff' was on CTSS, written by Jerry Saltzer. It had a
companion program, 'typset', which was an editor for preparing runoff input. A
memo describing them is available here:

  http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/ctss/AH.9.01.html

From the look of things, it didn't have any macro capability.

Runoff was moved to Multics fairly early: here's its entry from the Multics
glossary:

  A Multics BCPL version of runoff was written by Doug McIlroy and Bob
  Morris. A version of runoff in PL/I was written by Dennis Capps in
  1974.
  ...
  Multics documentation was transitioned from the Flexowriters to use of
  runoff when the system became self-hosting about 1968. runoff was used for
  manuals, release bulletins, internal memos and other documentation for most
  of the 70s. To support this use, Multics runoff had many features such as
  multi-pass execution and variable definition and expansion that went far
  beyond the CTSS version. Multics manuals were formatted with complex macros,
  included by the document source, that handled tables of contents and
  standard formatting, and supported the single sourcing of the commands
  manual and the info files for commands.

So the BCPL version would have been before Bell exited the project. I'm not
sure if the 'macros' comment refers to the BCPL version, or the PL/I. Here's
the Multics 'info' segment about runoff:

  http://web.mit.edu/multics-history/source/Multics/doc/info_segments/runoff.info

which doesn't mention macros, but lists a few things that might be used for
macros. It refers to "the runoff command in the MPM Commands" volume (a
reference to "Multics Programmer's manual: Commands and Active Functions") for
details; this is available on bitsavers, see page 3-619 in "AG92-03A",
February 1980 edition.

	Noel

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 26+ messages in thread
* [TUHS] In Memoriam: J.F.Ossanna
@ 2019-11-27 20:53 Dave Horsfall
  2019-11-28  0:06 ` Warner Losh
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 26+ messages in thread
From: Dave Horsfall @ 2019-11-27 20:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society

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

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 26+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2019-11-30 17:54 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 26+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2018-11-27 21:47 [TUHS] In Memoriam: J.F.Ossanna Dave Horsfall
2018-11-27 23:08 ` Ken Thompson via TUHS
2018-11-28  2:57   ` Larry McVoy
2018-11-28  4:48     ` Ken Thompson via TUHS
2018-11-28 14:44       ` Dan Cross
2018-11-28 17:08       ` Paul Winalski
2018-11-28 19:03         ` WIlliam Cheswick
2018-11-28 19:04         ` WIlliam Cheswick
2018-11-28 17:57       ` Earl Baugh
2018-11-28 18:23       ` ron minnich
2018-11-29 17:54       ` [TUHS] [OT] azel - was " Toby Thain
2018-11-29 17:57         ` Warner Losh
     [not found]         ` <CAG=a+rhvgikmvEPS_Z-umK2XPYfaxHmov_3QZuD0GcE97BN1qw@mail.gmail.com>
2018-11-29 20:11           ` Toby Thain
2018-11-28  5:22     ` [TUHS] " Fabio Scotoni
2018-11-28  9:20 ` Donald ODona
2018-11-29  3:54 ` Dave Horsfall
2018-11-28 13:09 Noel Chiappa
2019-11-27 20:53 Dave Horsfall
2019-11-28  0:06 ` Warner Losh
2019-11-28  0:43   ` Finn O'Leary
2019-11-28 17:16     ` ron
2019-11-28 17:18       ` ron
2019-11-28  0:46   ` David Arnold
2019-11-28  3:43 ` Larry McVoy
2019-11-30 17:45   ` Finn O'Leary
2019-11-28  9:19 ` Thomas Paulsen

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