From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: rochkind@basepath.com (Marc Rochkind) Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2015 11:57:05 -0700 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: Nelson-- Well, maybe CP/M and MS-DOS were less powerful, but you're forgetting that they had the benefit of 10 years or so of additional evolution. ;-) --Marc On Tue, Dec 8, 2015 at 11:20 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. > > Almost as soon as Unix was up on the PDP-11 one of Ken, Dennis > or Ossanna reimplemented a pre-macro version of roff (presumably > in assembler or B). I'm quite sure roff never ran on the PDP-7. > > Ossana had a grander plan and undertook nroff. When he learned > of the availability of the Graphic Systems CAT phototypesetter, > he promptly generalized nroff to handle it. Joe replaced the > CAT's paper tape reader with a direct wire to the computer. > It all worked swimmingly--nothing like the travails when the > CAT was replaced by the more capable Merganthaler Linotron. > > 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 > _______________________________________________ > TUHS mailing list > TUHS at minnie.tuhs.org > https://minnie.tuhs.org/mailman/listinfo/tuhs > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: