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From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: What does nroff stand for ?
Message-ID: <950@sugar.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Oct-87 18:42:37 EST
Article-I.D.: sugar.950
Posted: Fri Oct 30 18:42:37 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 21:32:51 EST
References: <180@aiva.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 15

In article <180@aiva.ed.ac.uk>, ken@aiva.ed.ac.uk (Ken Johnson) writes:
> > From: davy@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Dave Curry)
> > I've always wondered what the "n" [in nroff] was
> > for though ("non-typesetter"?).
> Probably "not".

First there was runoff. When a version of this program was first implemented
on UNIX, it was called roff. Mainly because ASR33s aren't conducive to long
command names. I remember using roff, and I kinda wish it was still provided.
It was really easy to do simple documents, a lot faster than nroff/troff,
and available for non-UNIX systems (you can get it from the Software Tools
group in Fortran). NROFF stands for "New ROFF".
-- 
-- Peter da Silva  `-_-'  ...!hoptoad!academ!uhnix1!sugar!peter
-- Disclaimer: These U aren't mere opinions... these are *values*.