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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Why troff?
Message-ID: <7678@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Feb-87 16:54:53 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.7678
Posted: Fri Feb 20 16:54:53 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Feb-87 16:54:53 EST
References: <362@linus.UUCP> <7592@utzoo.UUCP>, <2442@eagle.ukc.ac.uk>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 16
Keywords: TeX, troff

> >Another consideration is that troff will fit in a 16-bit machine, and TeX
> >hasn't a prayer of doing so...
> 
> 	Come now, I have TeX on an IBM pc, and it's a lot faster than
> 	on a VAX. You can also get TeX for the Mac, Atari ST1040 and
> 	Amiga. There may be others, but those are the ones I know of.

The relevant issue is not width of data path, which is utterly unimportant
except for performance, but width of address bus.  The PC address bus is
20 bits.  On the 68000 machines, it's 24 (more or less, depending on the
implementation).  The problem is fitting formatters into 16 bits of code
plus 16 bits of data (to be generous about it):  troff, even ditroff, will,
and TeX won't.
-- 
Legalize			Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
freedom!			{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry