ed@mtxinu.UUCP (Ed Gould) (12/24/85)
In article <460@rna.UUCP> kc@rna.UUCP (Kaare Christian) writes: >On a completely different subject. What does the me of the -me macros stand >for? In the old days (Sixth Edition), one could specify a "macro package" (actually just another file to be interpolated) with -mC where C was any single character. It referenced a file named /usr/lib/tmac.C. In the Seventh Edition, the scheme was generalized to allow strings: -mSTRING referenced /usr/lib/tmac/tmac.STRING. At that time, three packages were distributed: -ms, -mm, and -man. When Eric Allman wanted to write another package, in a fit of cooperation uncommon at the University in those days, he asked us at the computer center what the package should be called. We suggested "-meric" as the right place for Eric's macros. (There were several good reasons for putting them in a public place, rather than just letting Eric develop them in his own directory.) For brevity and desired but largely unachieved anonymity, Eric decided that -me was more appropriate. We also tried to get him to come up with a clever title for the documentation (something like "Troff and Me"), but Eric was too serious then for such levity. -- Ed Gould mt Xinu, 2910 Seventh St., Berkeley, CA 94710 USA {ucbvax,decvax}!mtxinu!ed +1 415 644 0146 "A man of quality is not threatened by a woman of equality."