- Roff
roff was the first
Unix text-formatting computer program , also the most important application run on the first machine specifically purchased to run UNIX, and a predecessor of thenroff andtroff document processing systems on Unix.It was a Unix version of the runoff text-formatting program from
Multics , which was a descendant ofRUNOFF for CTSS (the first computerized text-formatting application).The first UNIX version was a transliteration of the
BCPL version of "runoff" intoPDP-7 assembly, for the prototype UNIX on the PDP-7, circa 1970. When the firstPDP-11 was acquired for UNIX in late 1970 (a PDP-11/20), the justification cited to management for the funding required was that it was to be used as aword processing system, and so "roff" was quickly transliterated again, into PDP-11 assembly, in 1971.Dennis Ritchie notes that the ability to rapidly modify "roff" (because it was locally written software) to provide special features needed by theBell Labs Patent department was an important factor in leading to the adoption of UNIX by the Patent department to fill their word processing needs. This in turn gave UNIX enough credibility inside Bell Labs to secure the funding to purchase one of the first PDP-11/45's produced; it was on that machine that UNIX evolved into the system that later took thecomputer science world by storm.ee also
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nroff
*troff
* groffources
* D. M. Ritchie, "The Evolution of the" UNIX "Time-sharing System" (AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal, Vol. 63, No. 8, October 1984)
External links
* [http://www.netadmintools.com/html/7roff.man.html roff - Concepts and history of roff typesetting]
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