Subject: Re: UNIX manpage history
From: Nils-Peter Nelson <npn@att.net>
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:14:19 -0700
To: Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>

There was a group in Bell Labs, not in Research but the Development
side, that supported Unix, mostly for the telephone companies. Headed by
Joe Maranzano, they packaged and supported DWB, which consisted mostly
of programs developed in Research. The original DWB supporters included
Molly Wagner.  This group was eventually spun off as Unix Systems
Laboratory.

[redacted]

The starting point of DWB is mentioned here, though that name is never
mentioned. But the pieces are there.  So I'm guessing around 1978 for
the start of DWB.

http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/bstj/vol57-1978/articles/bstj57-6-2115.pdf


----- Original Message ----
From: Kristaps Dzonsons 
To: Nils-Peter Nelson 
Sent: Sun, October 30, 2011 10:40:08 AM
Subject: Re: UNIX manpage history

> > Runoff produced fixed width characters for a line printer or
> > teletype. The Bell Labs version was called roff and served until
> > linotype devices were available. The first troff port to the GE-635
> > was done by Roger Faulkner, now at Sun. though it may be that Bob
> > Morris started it. I was indeed the supervisor of the DWB project,
> > but I knew Kernighan well and the DWB version was always the same as
> > his. However, that was inside A&T. Unix Systems Lab continued to
> > sell a version of DWB with an old version; they never kept up. Then
> > they dropped it completely, selling the rights to a company in
> > Canada, SoftQuad. Eventually, USL started selling our version.

Nils-Peter,

Thanks for your response!  This has set me upon a track that's
surprisingly difficult to follow from public sources: the DWB.

Do you know of any documentation (or source) of the original DWB?  I
can't find exactly when troff formally begat it: can you fill in any
dates and places?

> > My recollection is that most of Kernighan's ditroff versions were
> > bug fixes rather than language changes, though I think he did add
> > features to make pic and eqn work properly.

Yes, he corroborates this (eqn in particular has a nice long source
trail in the UNIX archives).

[redacted]

Lastly, do you mind if I include these letters in the history?  Of
course, I'll redact all email headers (except date, subject, and names).

Thanks,

Kristaps