File: groff.info,  Node: Background,  Next: What Is groff??,  Prev: Introduction.php">Introduction,  Up: Introduction.php">Introduction

1.1 Background
==============

M. Douglas McIlroy, formerly of AT&T Bell Laboratories and present at
the creation of the Unix operating system, offers an authoritative
historical summary.

     The prime reason for Unix was the desire of Ken [Thompson], Dennis
     [Ritchie], and Joe Ossanna to have a pleasant environment for
     software development.  The fig leaf that got the nod from ...
     management was that an early use would be to develop a
     "stand-alone" word-processing system for use in typing pools and
     secretarial offices.  Perhaps they had in mind "dedicated", as
     distinct from "stand-alone"; that's what eventuated in various
     cases, most notably in the legal/patent department and in the AT&T
     CEO's office.

     Both those systems were targets of opportunity, not foreseen from
     the start.  When Unix was up and running on the PDP-11, Joe got
     wind of the legal department having installed a commercial word
     processor.  He went to pitch Unix as an alternative and clinched a
     trial by promising to make 'roff' able to number lines by tomorrow
     in order to fulfill a patent-office requirement that the commercial
     system did not support.

     Modems were installed so legal-department secretaries could try the
     Research machine.  They liked it and Joe's superb customer service.
     Soon the legal department got a system of their own.  Joe went on
     to create 'nroff' and 'troff'.  Document preparation became a
     widespread use of Unix, but no stand-alone word-processing system
     was ever undertaken.

   A history relating 'groff' to its predecessors 'roff', 'nroff', and
'troff' is available in the 'roff(7)' man page.