roff (software)
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AT&T Bell Laboratories | |
---|---|
Initial release | November 3, 1971 |
Operating system | Unix and Unix-like |
Type | Command |
roff is a
text-formatting computer program, it is a predecessor of the nroff and troff document processing systems.[1]
: 290
Roff was a Unix version of the
History
CTSS
roff is a descendant of the RUNOFF program by Jerry Saltzer, which ran on CTSS. Douglas McIlroy and Robert Morris wrote runoff
for Multics in BCPL based on Saltzer's program written in MAD assembler. Their program in turn was "transliterated" by Ken Thompson into PDP-7 assembler language for his early Unix operating system, circa 1970.[2][3]
When the first
word processing
system, and so roff was quickly transliterated again, into PDP-11 assembly, in 1971.
roff printed the
3 of Unix, and when the Bell Labs patent department began using it, it became the first Unix application with an outside client.[4] Dennis Ritchie noted that the ability to rapidly modify roff (because it was locally written software) to provide special features was an important factor in leading to the adoption of Unix by the patent department to fill its word processing needs. This in turn gave UNIX enough credibility inside Bell Labs to secure the funding to purchase one of the first PDP-11/45s produced.[citation needed
]
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59327-953-0.
- ^ Van Vleck, Tom, ed. (20 April 2024). "Multics Features". Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- McIlroy, M. D. (1987). A Research Unix reader: annotated excerpts from the Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986(PDF) (Technical report). CSTR. Bell Labs. 139.
Sources
- D. M. Ritchie, The Evolution of the UNIX Time-sharing System (AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal, Vol. 63, No. 8, October 1984)