what is Phototypesetter C

[utzoo!decvax!genrad!linus!allegra!eagle!harpo!seismo!rlgvax!tom]

Relay-Version:version B 3/9/83; site harpo.UUCP
Message-ID:<410 at rlgvax.UUCP>
Date:Wed, 11-May-83 11:20:27 EDT


Back in the old days, for non-Bell people, there was V6 UNIX.

The next release was PWB UNIX, with several changes:  'troff' was added,
(and 'nroff' became a compile-time option of 'troff'), there was a new
C compiler (new constructs were longs, unsigneds, castings, etc.), a new
archiver, a new link-editor (to go with the archiver), a new tape program
('cpio'), the 'stdio' package, and of course 'make', 'sccs', and the
better UNIX configuration tools that we normally associate with PWB.

"Phototypesetter UNIX", or "Phototypesetter C", was an in-between release,
which you put on top of V6 and provided some of the tools from PWB.  In
particular it gave 'troff' and the new 'nroff' (hence the name).  It also
provided the new C compiler, archiver, link-editor, and 'stdio' (probably
so you could compile 'troff'), and a few other odds and ends, but not
SCCS or 'make'.

For anyone with a V6 UNIX system, this upgrade is virtually mandatory since
the tools are much more compatible with the rest of the UNIX world than
straight V6.  The V6 compiler does not support many things used in everyday
C programs which Phototypesetter C does.  V6 doesn't have 'stdio', the most
important portability tool around, but Phototypsetter does.  'Cpio' is worlds
better than 'tp' (and many might argue better than 'tar').  And V6 nroff
has incompatibilities with other nroffs, and so many bugs that it is best
avoided for any complex formatting.

Phototypsetter C/UNIX does not help anyone with a PWB System, since it
is a subset of PWB.

This moment in history brought to you by ...
Tom Beres
RLG Corp.
{we13, seismo, allegra, mcnc}!rlgvax!tom