[TUHS] Re: Original print of V7 manual?

G. Branden Robinson wrote: I disagree. While the "NROFF/TROFF User's Manual" document proves that \(sq was hollow in all 3 fonts _as of 1976-10-11_ (the original date of this doc), bwk's document from 1978-08-04 indicates that this char had to have changed to a filled square by this date. However, troff in 1978 was still completely, utterly incapable of driving anything other than a C/A/T! Now bwk, the author of this doc, is the very same fine gentleman who wrote ditroff, the creature that was finally capable of driving a Linotron 202 or Autologic APS-5 or whatever - but the timeline does not match up. BWK's troff tutorial is dated 1978-08-04, but his work on ditroff (as I understand it) happened some time around 1980 or 1981. He may have started ditroff work in 1979, but definitely not in 1978. 4.3BSD Usenix books prove otherwise: these must have been troffed on APS-5, as many notes from that time attest, but they feature hollow square in bold. Even eqnchar(7) is "wrong" in 4.3BSD print in that "blot" is a hollow square, clearly counter to original intent of that named eqn character. Ahh, so you are involved with groff - got it. I wrote my own version of troff (based on V7, running under 4.3BSD and directly emitting DSC-conforming PostScript) in 3 "bursts" of work around 2004, 2010 and 2012, but I never got around to releasing it. I am now in the process of cleaning it up for release, hoping to finally have it out in another week or two. And I put a _lot_ of work into replicating the original troff character set... Thank you for clarifying what HRW is - so this 1983 version of 7th ed UPM is *not* the original? Thank you for the clarification! But if HRW version is not the original, then what was the original like? https://plan9.io/7thEdMan/bswv7.html http://web.cuzuco.com/~cuzuco/v7/ The second page includes a link to this tarball: http://web.cuzuco.com/~cuzuco/v7/v7add.tar.gz Dates inside that tarball are 1998-12-13. There was also a place where Brian missed the retroffing date - see page 287 of his v7vol2a.pdf. What _I_ don't like about BSW's PDF rendition of V7 manuals is that it is a sort of "closed source" product: there is no published source package that retraces every step in the flow from ancient troff sources to the finished product. In the same 3 "bursts" of activity (2004, 2010 and 2012) when I worked on my own version of troff, I also worked toward doing a PostScript reprint of 4.3BSD Usenix books. 4.3BSD happens to be my personally preferred version of UNIX, but the same methods I use for 4.3BSD books can also be applied to V7. I am hoping that in the next week or two I will find time to release not only my version of troff, but also the partial set of 4.3BSD books I got done so far. Out of the 7 books that comprise 4.3BSD Usenix set, the breakdown is as follows: * URM, PRM and USD: I got these done already, only need to write new colophons to be added to the end of each book. These are the ones I am hoping to put out Real Soon Now. * PS1, PS2 and SMM remain to be worked on, but are part of my more distant plans. * The "Master Index" volume, I plan to skip that one - too difficult, and non-essential in my view. And yes, I am much more "perfectionist" about replicating troff details than BSW was for his V7 PDF version. M~