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+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html>
+<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 7.0.3, https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<!-- This manual documents GNU troff version 1.23.0.
+
+Copyright © 1994-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
+under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
+Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
+copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
+Documentation License". -->
+<title>Background (The GNU Troff Manual)</title>
+
+<meta name="description" content="Background (The GNU Troff Manual)">
+<meta name="keywords" content="Background (The GNU Troff Manual)">
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+<link href="index.html" rel="start" title="Top">
+<link href="Request-Index.html" rel="index" title="Request Index">
+<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
+<link href="Introduction.html" rel="up" title="Introduction">
+<link href="What-Is-groff_003f.html" rel="next" title="What Is groff?">
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+
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+
+<body lang="en">
+<div class="section-level-extent" id="Background">
+<div class="nav-panel">
+<p>
+Next: <a href="What-Is-groff_003f.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">What Is <code class="code">groff</code>?</a>, Previous: <a href="Introduction.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Introduction</a>, Up: <a href="Introduction.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Introduction</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Request-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
+</div>
+<hr>
+<h3 class="section" id="Background-1">1.1 Background</h3>
+<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-background"></a>
+
+<p>M. Douglas McIlroy, formerly of AT&amp;T Bell Laboratories and present at
+the creation of the Unix operating system, offers an authoritative
+historical summary.
+</p>
+<blockquote class="quotation">
+<p>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 &hellip;
+management was that an early use would be to develop a &ldquo;stand-alone&rdquo;
+word-processing system for use in typing pools and secretarial offices.
+Perhaps they had in mind &ldquo;dedicated&rdquo;, as distinct from
+&ldquo;stand-alone&rdquo;; that&rsquo;s what eventuated in various cases, most notably
+in the legal/patent department and in the AT&amp;T CEO&rsquo;s office.
+</p>
+<p>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 <code class="code">roff</code> able to number lines by tomorrow in order
+to fulfill a patent-office requirement that the commercial system did
+not support.
+</p>
+<p>Modems were installed so legal-department secretaries could try the
+Research machine. They liked it and Joe&rsquo;s superb customer service.
+Soon the legal department got a system of their own. Joe went on to
+create <code class="code">nroff</code> and <code class="code">troff</code>. Document preparation became a
+widespread use of Unix, but no stand-alone word-processing system was
+ever undertaken.
+</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>A history relating <code class="code">groff</code> to its predecessors <code class="code">roff</code>,
+<code class="code">nroff</code>, and <code class="code">troff</code> is available in the <cite class="cite">roff<span class="r">(7)</span></cite>
+man page.
+</p>
+
+
+</div>
+<hr>
+<div class="nav-panel">
+<p>
+Next: <a href="What-Is-groff_003f.html">What Is <code class="code">groff</code>?</a>, Previous: <a href="Introduction.html">Introduction</a>, Up: <a href="Introduction.html">Introduction</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Request-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
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+</html>