20 Oct
2024
20 Oct
'24
3:39 p.m.
On Sun, Oct 20, 2024 at 01:23:23AM -0400, Dan Plassche wrote:
On Sat, 19 Oct 2024, Jonathan Gray wrote:
"It was rewritten in C around 1975"
Kernighan in CSTR 97, A Typesetter-independent TROFF
I've seen references to
"Documents for Use with the Phototypesetter (Version 7)"
which was likely distributed with the licensed phototypesetter tape in 1977.
What may have been the manual distributed with that tape is also close to v7.
https://www.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=Interdata732/usr/source/troff/doc
https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/Other/Interdata/
tuhs Applications/Spencer_Tapes/unsw3.tar.gz
usr/source/formatters/troff/doc/
PWB was an early external distribution with
troff.
Documents for the PWB/UNIX Time-Sharing System
https://datamuseum.dk/wiki/Bits:30007124
https://bitsavers.org/pdf/att/unix/PWB_UNIX/
NROFF/TROFF User's Manual
October 11, 1976
datamuseum.dk, pp 325-357
bitsavers, pp 217-249
Addendum to the NROFF/TROFF User's Manual
May 1977
datamuseum.dk, p 358
bitsavers, p 250
fonts described in:
Administrative Advice for PWB/UNIX
23. PHOTOTYPESETTING EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES
datamuseum.dk, p 647
Thank you Jonathan. I was previously not sure where to place the
PWB documentation in the timeline but a clearer picture is
emerging.
Based on the v6 "NROFF User's Manual" revised in 1974 and
published in 1975, I can now see that the PWB documentation with
the "NROFF/TROFF User's Manual" from 1976-77 has most of the
content that later appears in v7. The major change immediately
beforehand was the rewrite of troff into C.[1] Some clear
differences are the combination of nroff and troff manpages and
the addition of troff specific features like the special fonts
into the user's manual.
[1]. Apparently in 1976:
https://www.tuhs.org/Archive/Distributions/USDL/unix_program_description-tr…