From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: charles.unix.pro@gmail.com (Charles Anthony) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2015 10:47:57 -0800 Subject: [TUHS] Scan of "Edition 0" manual In-Reply-To: <201512081820.tB8IKCLQ144717@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> References: <201512081820.tB8IKCLQ144717@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> Message-ID: On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 10:20 AM, Doug McIlroy wrote: > > It might not be so much a set of macros as just using a > > subset of raw groff. > > Yes, there were no macros back then. If you format the > document using raw groff, the odds are that you will be > speaking the same roff that Dennis did. > > > Doug having been there, might know/remember the actually lineage. > > Aside from some fuzziness about who wrote what and in what > language, here's what happened: > > To port Jerry Saltzer's Runoff (presumably written in MAD) > to Multics, either Dennis or Bob Morris or both together > reimplemented it (presumably in PL/I). To coexist with > Saltzer's version on CTSS, the new program needed a > distinct name, hence roff. > > The early Multics PL/I compiler was far from a production > tool. Justifiably, the Bell Labs comp center didn't > support it. To get roff into general use at the Labs, > I undertook yet another implementation in BCPL. I added > functionality (number registers, three-part headings, etc) > and kept the new name. Molly Wagner added hyphenation. > Eventually, I added macros that were usable either as > commands or (when parameterless) embedded in text. > > >From Multics 12.5: runoff_mr1.bcpl // Roff for MULTICS // // The first ROFF for Multics was written in March, 1969, by // Doug McIlroy of Bell Labs. Art Evans made extensive // modifications to it in May and June, 1969, adding many // comments and making various changes. // Footnoting added by Dennis Capps in 1970. // Maintained by Harwell Thrasher in 1971. // Many new features added and bugs fixed by R Mabee in 1971-1972. // RUNOFF and BCPL were brought over to the 6180 Multics (from 645) in May of 1973 by R F Mabee. The string 'macro" does not appear in the Multics runoff source. > An interesting question of priority is whether nroff or > BCPL roff was first to have a macro capability. Though > I don't remember for sure, the fact that BCPL roff unified > registers, macros, strings and diversions suggests that > I abstracted from nroff facilities. > > Doug > -- Charles -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: