> Finally somebody mentions something close to runoff :-) Okay, you asked for it: In 2008 I was entrusted with a DVD with some raw files copied from the 9-track tape archive save set from the UofWaterloo MFCF Honeywell 36-bit-word GCOS mainframe machine that was decommissioned in 1992. The files were raw block copies of the tapes in 36-bit proprietary Honeywell media code format. The dates on the save files ranged from 1972 through to 1992. The files were not ASCII.
In 2012, for the 50th anniversary of our UW amateur theatre group "FASS", one of our merry band wrote a Ruby program to decode the tape save files on the DVD into ASCII so that we could look for old versions of the scripts we wrote back then. Our theatre group (http://fass.uwaterloo.ca/) used the Honeywell ROFF system to format the scripts starting around 1975, later moving to the locally-written "TF" system, based on ROFF: https://www.thinkage.ca/gcos/expl/tf/expl.html https://www.thinkage.ca/gcos/expl/tf/diff.html https://www.thinkage.ca/gcos/expl/tf/summ.html https://www.thinkage.ca/gcos/expl/tf/manu/manu.html I wrote a 350-line ROFF/TF macro package that formatted scripts. An excerpt: .zz -- Define a character abbreviation and print a cast of characters .at na .mg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .if "@2"<1 endif2 .warning "'.na @1' needs long and short character names" .define_name "@1" "<@1>--UNDEFINED" "<@1>" ^^(@1_number). <@1> --NO~LONG~NAME--~ ~(--NO~SHORT~NAME--) .el endif2 .if "@3"<1 endif3 .warning "'.na @1' needs a third argument (short name)" .define_name "@1" "@2" "@2" ^^(@1_number). <@1> ^^(@1_longname)~ ~(--NO~SHORT~NAME--) .el endif3 .define_name "@1" "@2" "@3" ^^(@1_number). <@1> ^^(@1_longname)~ ~(^^(@1_shortname)) .en endif3 .en endif2 .mg .zz .en na The macros would produce a script for the line printer that looked like this (66 lines by 85 columns; overstriking to produce BOLD text has been removed): 1:1 An Old-FASSioned Love Song Page 1 Work Until You Drop Characters defined for this scene: 1. <fo> IVAN WORKIN . . . . . . . . . . . . (IVAN) 2. <w1> WANDA RAILROAD . . . . . . . . . (WANDA) 3. <w2> ALBA LIVLONGDAY . . . . . . . . . . (ALBA) 4. <w3> JUSTIN PASSATIMAWAY . . . . . . . (JUSTIN) 5. <w4> DINAH WONCHABLOW . . . . . . . . (DINAH) 6. <be> BELLA COSE . . . . . . . . . . . (BELLA) 7. <kn> ED NAUSEUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . (ED) 8. <ed> IRMA GEDDON . . . . . . . . . . . . (IRMA) 9. <to> TOM FOOLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . (TOM) 10. <pa> TYRONE SHOELACE . . . . . . . . . (TYRONE) 11. <gy> HARRY KRISHNA . . . . . . . . . . (HARRY) 12. <bo> MENACHAM DEAD . . . . . . . . . (MENACHAM) 13. <mo> MOLLY CODDLE . . . . . . . . . . (MOLLY) 14. <pr> PRISCILLA CHARYBDIS . . . . . (PRISCILLA) 15. <ga> GAYLE FORCE . . . . . . . . . . . (GAYLE) 16. <gr> PENNY LANE . . . . . . . . . . . (PENNY) 17. <la> LANCE A. BOYLE . . . . . . . . . (LANCE) 18. <va> JOHNSON N. JOHNSON . . . . . . (JOHNSON) 19. <eu> EUSTACE CLARENCE SCRUBB . . . . (EUSTACE) 20. <se> HERB N. BLIGHT . . . . . . . . . . (HERB) 21. <go> MACK O. RONI . . . . . . . . . . . (MACK) 22. <em> EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN . . . . . . (EMMANUEL) 23. <mu> MUFFY FORNOTHING . . . . . . . . (MUFFY) 24. <cw> CATHERINE WHEEL . . . . . . . (CATHERINE) 25. <cp> CUPID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (CUPID) (THE SCENE TAKES PLACE IN THE (AS YET UNFINISHED) ICR BUILDING. AS THE CURTAIN RISES, A GROUP OF WORKMEN (INCLUDING WANDA, ALBA, JUSTIN AND DINAH) ARE SCAMPERING ABOUT OVER EVERYTHING. IVAN, CARRYING A CLIPBOARD, IS SUPERVISING. OFF TO ONE SIDE OF THE STAGE IS A SIGN READING "SAFETY FIRST! ANYONE NOT WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR ON SITE WILL BE SHOT ON SIGHT". BACKSTAGE ARE SIGNS READING "WILLIAM G. DAVIS INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER RESEARCH" AND "COMPUTERIZED UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM FOR INTELLIGENT DATING" WITH THE INITIAL LETTERS WHICH SPELL "CUPID" DISTINGUISHED FROM THE REST. ALSO OFF TO ONE SIDE IS A LARGE FEATURELESS BOX WHICH WILL BECOME THE "INSTA-STAGE") (ENTER MENACHAM, WITH MACK AND CAMPUS COPS. MACK AND THE CAMPUS COPS ARE ARMED) 1-MENACHAM DEAD(1): All right, who's the idiot in charge here? (IVAN STEPS FORWARD PROUDLY) 2-IVAN WORKIN(1): I'm the idiot in charge, sir. 1:1 Page 1 FASS 1988 89/03/02-13:31 The macros were converted to nroff for use under Unix in later years, which was a real pain because macro and register names had to be shortened to only two characters. An excerpt: .zz -- Define a character abbreviation and print a cast of characters .de na .TT "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" .if \\nx==0 \{. \\*(WA '.na \\$1' needs one-character abbreviation. ?. <\\$1> --NO~LONG~NAME--~^A~(--NO~SHORT~NAME--) .\} .if \\nx==1 \{. \\*(WA '.na \\$1' needs long and short character names .DZ "\\$1" "<\\$1>--UNDEFINED" "<\\$1>" \\n(\\$1N. <\\$1> --NO~LONG~NAME--~^A~(--NO~SHORT~NAME--) .\} .if \\nx==2 \{. \\*(WA '.na \\$1' needs a third argument (short name) .DZ "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$2" \\n(\\$1N. <\\$1> \\*(\\$1L~^A~(--NO~SHORT~NAME--) .\} .if \\nx==3 \{. .DZ "\\$1" "\\$2" "\\$3" \\n(\\$1N. <\\$1> \\*(\\$1L~^A~(\\*(\\$1S) .\} .. So, yes, almost RUNOFF! -- | Ian! D. Allen, BA-Psych, MMath-CompSci [email protected] Ottawa CANADA | Home: www.idallen.com Contact Improvisation Dance: www.contactimprov.ca | Former college professor of Free/Libre GNU+Linux @ teaching.idallen.com | Improve democracy www.fairvote.ca and defend digital freedom www.eff.org _______________________________________________ Remind-fans mailing list [email protected] https://dianne.skoll.ca/mailman/listinfo/remind-fans Remind is at https://dianne.skoll.ca/projects/remind/
