[TUHS] Re: Line Numbers Before SysIII nl? BSD num?

The n rule is actually what lead me to studying nl. It's also supported in System III but not V7, although ed's n does show up in V8-V10. The implementation looks similar although integrated slightly differently. Probably from the same source though. There's also an implementation in 4.4BSD-Lite, although plan old 4.4 with the AT&T encumbered ed doesn't implement n. So a rough timeline I can see for line number filters based on source code, old docs, etc: 1977 - num and ex's '#' commands are introduced for 2BSD release 1980 - nl and ed's 'n' commands are introduced in System III 1980 - num's trail goes dark between 4 and 4.1c BSD 1982 - System V adopts ex, including '#' 1985 - Research has adopted ed with n by now as well as ex, never adopts nl 1992 - POSIX.2 is released, codifying nl, ed with n, and ex with # 1992 - nl appears in GNU fileutils 1994 - 4.4BSD-Lite ed includes n 1999 - NetBSD 1.4 adds nl 2002 - FreeBSD 4.5 adds nl 2005 - MacOSX 10.4 with text_cmds-47 adds nl 2013 - MINIX 3.2.1 adopts NetBSD nl 2014 - OpenBSD 5.5 adds nl So all in all, num was an attempt that petered out, but # stayed in ex. System III and 4.4BSD-Lite ed derivatives implement n, and nl was introduced in System III for the AT&T line and slowly cropped up elsewhere. System V picked up ex in 1982, allowing nl, ed with n, and ex with # in the AT&T line. GNU had one out of the gate when POSIX hit. BSDs were late to the party with regards to both ed with n as well as nl, with nl only being adopted after the last Berkeley releases and subsequent fracturing. So thus far it seems the earliest line numberer to see wide use was probably ex's #. System III's nl became the ubiquitous tool for the job and was then slowly adopted elsewhere. Ed rides a fine middle ground with the n command that saw wider adoption earlier. I still have to wonder if there was something earlier though. - Matt