Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 12 Sep 2017 16:55:53 -0600
From:      Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon@orthanc.ca>
Cc:        Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>, FreeBSD Current <current@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Removal of catman from base
Message-ID:  <CANCZdfoxE8HAAE%2BPVTVOuSYtTYg7rgXcUMMwrAk0Lp0tGu9qaA@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.21.1709121538490.54096@orthanc.ca>
References:  <20170912184200.GD99742@gmail.com> <77524.1505242222@critter.freebsd.dk> <alpine.BSF.2.21.1709121210140.54096@orthanc.ca> <78909.1505251253@critter.freebsd.dk> <alpine.BSF.2.21.1709121538490.54096@orthanc.ca>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 4:48 PM, Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon@orthanc.ca> wrote:

> On Tue, 12 Sep 2017, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>
> I'm pretty sure that SVR1 had catman and roff was an extra and somewhat
>> pricey software package.
>>
>
> The SVR1 (and 2) systems I had access to were all CTIX, and it shipped
> with nroff/troff.  And the 3B4000 & 3B2s I used later (SVR2 and later) also
> had nroff/troff.
>
> Maybe you're thinking of ditroff (Device Independent Troff) that was sold
> for gobs of $$$ through the AT&T Toolchest.  Certainly none of the SVRx
> machines I used shipped with ditroff.  I don't even think ditroff was on
> our 3B2 SVR3 source tapes.
>
> But I very clearly recall the absense of manpage source on that SVR3 tape.
> I remember howling bloody murder at AT&T Canada over that.  This was at
> Athabasca University - a distance education institution.  We typeset all
> our own course materials (using Softquad's sqtroff), and not being able to
> include properly typeset manpages with the course documentation (especially
> reflecting our local modifications to the systems) made me ... grumpy.


Back in school, our SunOS 3, SunOS 4 and VAX running BSD 4.{2,3} we had to
run a special ditroff to use the Imagen laser printer. And it was a special
deal that came with the printer to support document creation on the Unix
boxes. I don't know if it was an extra cost item for the Imagen printer or
not, but it wasn't part of the base system.

Warner



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?CANCZdfoxE8HAAE%2BPVTVOuSYtTYg7rgXcUMMwrAk0Lp0tGu9qaA>