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0 pointsHarryHirsch5y ago0 comments

Back in the day we had engineers writing documents from markup. We called them typesetters. It was a qualified job, you don't expect the task to be something Joe Random could to with 6 weeks of training.

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throw0101a5y ago

> Back in the day we had engineers writing documents from markup.

Back in the day secretaries were creating electronic documents with troff and nroff:

> The first version of Unix was developed on a PDP-7 which was sitting around Bell Labs. In 1971 the developers wanted to get a PDP-11 for further work on the operating system. In order to justify the cost for this system, they proposed that they would implement a document-formatting system for the Bell Labs patents department[1]. This first formatting program was a reimplementation of McIllroy's roff, written by Joe F. Ossanna.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff

rmbeard5y ago

OP, here. It's not that long ago, I've used troff myself. Or maybe it was that long ago, but it just seems like yesterday.

dewey5y ago

Back in the days operating a computer also needed weeks of training and was a qualified job. That doesn't mean it always has to stay that way.

SilasX5y ago

At risk of gatekeeping, it doesn’t sound like typesetters merit the title of engineer.

formerly_proven5y ago

That's because it wasn't.

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