[comp.unix.questions] pic

baynes@nusc.navy.mil (BAYNES) (08/30/89)

	We are looking for a public domain version 
	of PIC. Does anyone know of an available
	source?

	Bob Baynes
	CRAY SYSTEMS MANAGER
	ASECC/TAI
	Bldg. 112 South End
	NUSC
	Newport, R.I.
	(401)841-4249

	baynes@nusc-npt.navy.mil

gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) (08/31/89)

In article <20743@adm.BRL.MIL> baynes@nusc.navy.mil (BAYNES) writes:
>	We are looking for a public domain version 
>	of PIC. Does anyone know of an available
>	source?

The original "pic" is licensed as part of AT&T's Documenter's WorkBench.
(Release 2.0 is the most recent, I believe, and includes the version of
"pic" that was augmented to support "grap".)

I've worked extensively with the original "pic" source code, and I find
it doubtful that anyone would have done the work necessary to produce an
accurate clone.  It's a fairly large and elaborate program.

I suspect that SoftQuad (Toronto) has an improved version of "pic", but
not for free.  On the other hand, AT&T DWB licenses are fairly cheap.
Why not just get the real thing?  (Then you can get bug fixes from me.)

chen@digital.sps.mot.com (Jinfu Chen) (10/10/89)

Every once a while I find some *roff documents include simple pictures
to be processed via `pic'. Where's this `pic' program comes from? Is
it part of AT&T SYS 5.x or BSD 4.x release? Without `pic' I couldn't
get RCS manual printed. Also one of the posting in comp.sources.x (X
Window Intro?) uses `pic' extensively too.

Reply via Email is preferred.

gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) (10/11/89)

In article <46215f96.81da@digital.sps.mot.com> chen@digital (Jinfu Chen) writes:
>Every once a while I find some *roff documents include simple pictures
>to be processed via `pic'. Where's this `pic' program comes from?

"pic" is part of the Documenter's WorkBench package licensed by AT&T.
Sometimes DWB is bundled with a vendor's implementation of UNIX,
sometimes it is available from the vendor as an extra-cost option,
and sometimes you have to turn to a third party (e.g. Elan, SoftQuad)
to obtain it.  I know of no public-domain implementation of "pic".