Subject: Re: UNIX manpages & questions regarding roff(1) history. From: Ken Thompson Date: 01/11/2011 18:11 To: Kristaps Dzonsons the basic answers are: yes, no, no. on thinking about it, i revise the part about the c roff use for patent application. it was definitely joe's nroff version that was used for patents. if what i say conflicts with anyone else, use their version. i would stack their memory up against mine any day. ken On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 6:49 AM, Kristaps Dzonsons wrote: > > Ken, > > > > Thanks for your response! I've integrated these parts, along with > > those of a few others from Bell Labs at the time, into the history. > > Quick question: would you object to including your mail with the > > record? I of course redact all mail headers but for date, subject, > > and participant names. > > > > I also have a follow-up quick question or two, if I can claim > > another minute of time... > > >> >> the roffs all descend from runoff from mit's ctss system. i wrote >> >> rf (then roff) for the pdp-7 for some early manual work someone >> >> else (probably dennis) wrote roff in c on the pdp-11. this >> >> version of roff was written to do patent applications. the patent >> >> application was the justification for getting the pdp-11. > > > > Would you happen to have a copy of the PDP-7 work somewhere, or know > > where it may be found? > > >> >> joe ossanna wrote nroff, which was kinda programmable via macros. >> >> then with a large set of macros it could emulate roff. he then >> >> added fonts and sizes to make troff for the newly interfaced >> >> typesetter. brian kernighan (i think) combined nroff and troff to >> >> be the same program. >> >> >> >> i did the start of the man pages and set up the title/synopsis/... >> >> stuff. the loose prototype for the man pages was the multics man >> >> (MSPM). the mspm was much wordier and less structured, but many >> >> sections had similar headings. > > > > This is quite interesting, thanks! Do you know of any mails or > > documents prior to the V1 AT&T Prog. Manual that mention this > > structure? > > > > Thanks again, > > > > Kristaps > >