<div dir="ltr">I found this TUHS thread from 2019:<div><br></div><div><a href="https://tuhs.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tuhs@tuhs.org/thread/GPFOZNHNX2JOPPTPJEPRILDIT5O7N6QS/">https://tuhs.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/tuhs@tuhs.org/thread/GPFOZNHNX2JOPPTPJEPRILDIT5O7N6QS/</a></div><div><br></div><div>in which Andy Hall's 1972 memo on M6 is referenced:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://plan9.io/cm/cs/cstr/2.pdf">https://plan9.io/cm/cs/cstr/2.pdf</a></div><div><br></div><div>Marc</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Dec 15, 2024 at 2:53 PM Charles H Sauer (he/him) <<a href="mailto:sauer@technologists.com">sauer@technologists.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">On 12/15/2024 2:17 PM, G. Branden Robinson wrote:<br>
> At 2024-12-15T15:09:20-0500, John Levine wrote:<br>
>>> On Sun, Dec 15, 2024 at 10:49 AM Marc Rochkind <<a href="mailto:mrochkind@gmail.com" target="_blank">mrochkind@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>>>> Incidentally, UNIX had a different language-independent macro processor<br>
>>>> called m6. ...<br>
>><br>
>>> Correction: The version of M6 for UNIX was called M4. Maybe because it was<br>
>>> only 2/3 as complete?<br>
>><br>
>> The Wikipedia article on macroprocessors says that M6 was written in<br>
>> the 1960s by McIlroy, Morris, and Hall, based on GPM and Trac, written<br>
>> in Fortran and ported to v2 Unix.<br>
>><br>
>> M4 was written in the 1970s by Kernighan and Ritchie in C and is still<br>
>> around, notably as impenetrable magic in GNU autoconfig and sendmail<br>
>> config files. It looks a lot like GPM.<br>
> <br>
> Being aware of its reputation, I had some trepidation about using it,<br>
> and found its impenetrability to be overstated.<br>
> <br>
> For a few years now I've used it to generate two man pages from a single<br>
> source: groff_man(7) and groff_man_style(7).<br>
> <br>
> <a href="https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/tmac/groff_man.7.man.in?h=1.23.0" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/tmac/groff_man.7.man.in?h=1.23.0</a><br>
> <br>
> The only thing I stubbed my toe on is m4's appropriation of common<br>
> English words for its command language. A prefix sigil before such<br>
> words would have been a better choice. But I got around that, too.<br>
> <br>
> <a href="https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/tmac/tmac.am?h=1.23.0#n252" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/tmac/tmac.am?h=1.23.0#n252</a><br>
> <br>
> Regards,<br>
> Branden<br>
<br>
In 1997, when CSS was just beginning, long before <br>
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_%28computer_language%29" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_%28computer_language%29</a> was started in <br>
2004, and subsequently illustrated m4 macros for creating HTML, I <br>
started using m4 macros extensively to define Web pages in such a matter <br>
that they could mimic appearance of other pages, and taught others at <br>
our startup to use those macros, so that our customers could use our <br>
software while retaining appearance consistent with the rest of their <br>
pages. Another way to think of the macros is that they comprise a static <br>
content management system – the content is stored in m4 files, which are <br>
transformed into HTML in advance, vs. more dynamic page generation in a <br>
typical content management system.<br>
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990125090055/http://hire.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/19990125090055/http://hire.com/</a> describes <br>
the software. <br>
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19980209192647/http://www.eds.com/careers/overview/cr_overview.shtml" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/19980209192647/http://www.eds.com/careers/overview/cr_overview.shtml</a>, <br>
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990224005553/http://world4.hire.com/SVB/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/19990224005553/http://world4.hire.com/SVB/</a>, and<br>
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19990422144616/http://www.careerstop.org/job.htm" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/19990422144616/http://www.careerstop.org/job.htm</a> <br>
show remnants of customer pages created with those m4 macros.<br>
<br>
More at <br>
<a href="https://technologists.com/notes/2007/11/02/css-a-mans-got-to-know-his-limitations-2/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://technologists.com/notes/2007/11/02/css-a-mans-got-to-know-his-limitations-2/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
Charlie<br>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
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Facebook/Google/LinkedIn/Twitter</a>: CharlesHSauer<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><div><br clear="all"></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><i>My new email address is <a href="mailto:mrochkind@gmail.com" target="_blank">mrochkind@gmail.com</a></i></div></div></div>