2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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troff
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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/Trof/ , /trof/ , n. [Unix] The gray eminence of Unix text processing; a
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formatting and phototypesetting program, written originally in PDP-11
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assembler and then in barely-structured early C by the late Joseph Ossanna,
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modeled after the earlier ROFF which was in turn modeled after the Multics
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and CTSS program RUNOFF by Jerome Saltzer ( that name came from the
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expression to run off a copy ). A companion program, nroff , formats output
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for terminals and line printers. In 1979, Brian Kernighan modified troff so
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that it could drive phototypesetters other than the Graphic Systems CAT. His
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2018-10-15 14:34:25 -04:00
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paper describing that work (A Typesetter-independent troff, AT&T CSTR #97)
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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explains troff's durability. After discussing the program's obvious
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deficiencies a rebarbative input syntax, mysterious and undocumented
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properties in some areas, and a voracious appetite for computer resources
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and noting the ugliness and extreme hairiness of the code and internals,
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Kernighan concludes: None of these remarks should be taken as denigrating
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Ossanna's accomplishment with TROFF. It has proven a remarkably robust tool,
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taking unbelievable abuse from a variety of preprocessors and being forced
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into uses that were never conceived of in the original design, all with
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considerable grace under fire. The success of TeX and desktop publishing
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systems have reduced troff 's relative importance, but this tribute
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perfectly captures the strengths that secured troff a place in hacker
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folklore; indeed, it could be taken more generally as an indication of those
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qualities of good programs that, in the long run, hackers most admire.
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