Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!mips!sgi!shinobu!odin!fido.wpd.sgi.com!pkr From: pkr@sgi.com (Phil Ronzone) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: Q: nroff character sizes Keywords: nroff term Message-ID: <1991Jun11.193512.304@fido.wpd.sgi.com> Date: 11 Jun 91 19:35:12 GMT References: <2133@ecicrl.ocunix.on.ca> <1991Jun11.115142.8419@phri.nyu.edu> Sender: news@fido.wpd.sgi.com (Usenet News Admin) Distribution: na Organization: Elvis Presley Memorial Institute of UFO Studies Lines: 21 In article <1991Jun11.115142.8419@phri.nyu.edu> roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: >plona@romulus.rutgers.edu (Lawrence Plona) writes: >> nroff could have been written to do a lot more with line printers. > > You're joking, right? At the time nroff was written, you were >lucky to find a line printer that could do anything fancier than print a >subset of ascii (i.e. no lower case) and do linefeeds and formfeeds. Even >if you expand the definition of "line printer" to mean "hard copy terminal" >that above is still largely true. Actually, troff was written first. Nroff was a hack of troff that came after. -- Philip K. Ronzone (pkr@sgi.com) [OLD & HyperMedia Project] Silicon Graphics, Inc. MS 9U-500 work (415) 335-1511 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94039 fax (415) 969-2314 "Gibber at that, ye scurvy rats", pkr "Why, you little ...", Homer Simpson