[TUHS] *roff history as told to GNU

[Charles H. Sauer]

I try to avoid inserting non-Unix IBM stuff into TUHS, but since Clem 
opened the door, ...

When I was at Yorktown 1975-77 and 1979-82, using Script (IBM's runoff) 
on VM/370 was very pleasant from my perspective, for papers, manuals and 
my three performance modeling books. IIRC when I got there Script output 
went to Versatecs for draft output and to APS5 for camera ready. By 
1979, DCF superseded Script and 6670s superseded Versatecs for draft 
output. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCRIPT_(markup) and 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Generalized_Markup_Language seem fair 
to me.

While I'm inserting non-Unix stuff, and presuming some parallel between 
Yorktown and Murray Hill, the culture discussions make me point out that 
I intentionally avoided ties and suits my first couple of years, wearing 
a turtleneck for my initial interviews. Then my wife insisted I start 
wearing three piece wool suits, which were fine in the cold months 
requiring driving, but I avoided them when the weather was warm enough 
for me to cycle the five miles to the lab 
(https://technologists.com/songs/swans.html).

CHS

On 1/12/2022 4:48 PM, Clem Cole wrote:
> Dan/Branden -- don't forget that IBM had a flavor of the runoff family 
> also at least by the early 1970s when I saw it.  In fact, I learned it 
> before either the DEC ones for the PDP-10s which I saw next, and only 
> after that the UNIX family.    We ran the IBM doc tool on TSS [often of 
> 2741 style devices], and I think it ran on MTS.  Pre-laser printer days, 
> although CS an XGP, it was only 200 dpi (and was on the PDP-10s).  So 
> CMU computer center (IBM shop) even had a very high end printer with a 
> golf ball (serial) output device that was in a locked room that was 
> connected the 360 that they used to print 'special' letters on a fan 
> folded paper that was super high quality and then run through the 
> 'burster' to remove the edges and make it single sheets [Acceptance 
> letters and other special things got printed on it by the computer 
> center for the administration].   I don't remember much about that part 
> of the process, other than the input/prep was from the IBM version of a 
> runoff like program and as an operator, we had to learn to make it go 
> and run things out on it as needed. But I do remember it was a PITA to 
> output to that thing, but the SW also worked on a traditional 2741.  As 
> a member of the computer staff I had access to the 2741 in my office 
> (for APL work), but could set it up as a standard 2741 and type papers 
> on it late at night.
> 
> On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 1:42 PM Dan Halbert <halbert at halwitz.org 
> <mailto:halbert at halwitz.org>> wrote:
> 
>     On 1/12/22 13:06, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
>      > Hi, Dan,
>      >
>      > At 2022-01-12T11:33:35-0500, Dan Cross wrote:
>      >> I have some questions about the earlier history.
>      >>
>      >> I've been collecting a detailed narrative history not just of
>     the *roff
>      >> _programs_ but also of the development on the language in the
>     roff(7)
>      >> manual page.  Below I'll share a current chunk of it that is
>     planned for
>      >> the next release (groff 1.23).  It has been heavily revised since
>      >> groff 1.22.4.  Many of my revisions have been motivated by
>     accounts from
>      >> this list, from the "history of man pages" (more of a history of
>     troff)
>      >> at manpages.bsd.lv <http://manpages.bsd.lv>, and the minnie TUHS
>     archive.
> 
>     I used RUNOFF on TOPS-10 in 1971, I think, and eventually also on TENEX
>     and TOPS-20. It probably was available earlier than that. Your history
>     is covering the Unix side, but there is also a pretty robust DEC side.
>     It was available on pretty much all the DEC machines.
>     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TYPSET_and_RUNOFF
>     <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TYPSET_and_RUNOFF> has some mentions.
> 
>     Dan H.
> 

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