5 ms·
This refers to the pic(1) preprocessor to the troff(1) typesetter. Troff is a historical typesetting software with a long history in the Unix ecosystem. Having
by smlckz 3y ago
This refers to the pic(1) preprocessor to the troff(1) typesetter. Troff is a historical typesetting software with a long history in the Unix ecosystem. Having personally used some of the modern implementations (e.g. GNU troff or groff, heirloom troff) of troff for personal projects, it has been a pleasant experience.
https://troff.org https://troff.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIC_(markup_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIC_(markup_language)
https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/roff.7.html https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man7/roff.7.html
- ComputerGuru 3y agoThanks. I'm familiar with troff, but somehow never came across pic in that context. I have some reading to do!
- wrs 3y agoOne of the first “real” applications of Unix was in the AT&T documentation department. It not only reinforced the practicality of the Unixy “small tools linked by pipes” approach, it also encouraged the “little languages” approach to those tools, which brought us lex and yacc as people built things like eqn and pic to feed into troff. To discover more, just google “unix little languages”.