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28 lines
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>troff</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../T.html" title="T"/><link rel="previous" href="trivial.html" title="trivial"/><link rel="next" href="troglodyte.html" title="troglodyte"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">troff</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="trivial.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">T</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="troglodyte.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="troff"/><dt xmlns="" id="troff"><b>troff</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/T<>rof/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/trof/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [Unix] The gray eminence of Unix text processing; a formatting and
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phototypesetting program, written originally in <a href="../P/PDP-11.html"><i class="glossterm">PDP-11</i></a> assembler and then
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in barely-structured early C by the late Joseph Ossanna, modeled after the
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earlier ROFF which was in turn modeled after the
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<a href="../M/Multics.html"><i class="glossterm">Multics</i></a> and <a href="../C/CTSS.html"><i class="glossterm">CTSS</i></a> program
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RUNOFF by Jerome Saltzer (<span class="emphasis"><em>that</em></span> name came from the
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expression “<span class="quote">to run off a copy</span>”). A companion program,
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<span class="application">nroff</span>, formats output for terminals and line
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printers.</p><p>In 1979, Brian Kernighan modified troff so that it could drive
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phototypesetters other than the Graphic Systems CAT. His paper describing
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that work (“<span class="quote">A Typesetter-independent troff,</span>” AT&T CSTR
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#97) explains troff's durability. After discussing the program's
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“<span class="quote">obvious deficiencies — a rebarbative input syntax, mysterious
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and undocumented properties in some areas, and a voracious appetite for
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computer resources</span>” and noting the ugliness and extreme hairiness of
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the code and internals, Kernighan concludes:</p><div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>None of these remarks should be taken as denigrating
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Ossanna's accomplishment with TROFF. It has proven a
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remarkably robust tool, taking unbelievable abuse from a
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variety of preprocessors and being forced into uses that
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were never conceived of in the original design, all with
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considerable grace under fire.</p></blockquote></div><p>The success of <a href="TeX.html"><i class="glossterm">TeX</i></a> and desktop publishing
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systems have reduced <b class="command">troff</b>'s relative
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importance, but this tribute perfectly captures the strengths that secured
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<b class="command">troff</b> a place in hacker folklore; indeed,
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it could be taken more generally as an indication of those qualities of
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good programs that, in the long run, hackers most admire.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="trivial.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../T.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="troglodyte.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">trivial<EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>troglodyte</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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