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From: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Newsgroups: net.text
Subject: Re: "-me" etymology
Message-ID: <496@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Dec-85 14:31:26 EST
Article-I.D.: mtxinu.496
Posted: Tue Dec 24 14:31:26 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Dec-85 13:10:32 EST
References: <460@rna.UUCP>
Reply-To: ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould)
Organization: mt Xinu, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 27

In article <460@rna.UUCP> kc@rna.UUCP (Kaare Christian) writes:
>On a completely different subject.  What does the me of the -me macros stand
>for? 

In the old days (Sixth Edition), one could specify a "macro package"
(actually just another file to be interpolated) with -mC where C was
any single character.  It referenced a file named /usr/lib/tmac.C.  In
the Seventh Edition, the scheme was generalized to allow strings:
-mSTRING referenced /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.STRING.  At that time, three
packages were distributed: -ms, -mm, and -man.

When Eric Allman wanted to write another package, in a fit of
cooperation uncommon at the University in those days, he asked us at
the computer center what the package should be called.  We suggested
"-meric" as the right place for Eric's macros.  (There were several
good reasons for putting them in a public place, rather than just
letting Eric develop them in his own directory.)  For brevity and
desired but largely unachieved anonymity, Eric decided that -me was
more appropriate.  We also tried to get him to come up with a clever
title for the documentation (something like "Troff and Me"), but Eric
was too serious then for such levity.

-- 
Ed Gould                    mt Xinu, 2910 Seventh St., Berkeley, CA  94710  USA
{ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed   +1 415 644 0146

"A man of quality is not threatened by a woman of equality."