Re: Gremlin Format grn

[Ingo Schwarze]

Hi Robert,

Robert Goulding wrote on Fri, Jul 16, 2021 at 09:56:09AM -0600:

> I once managed to compile and run the source code to gremlin, the graphic
> frontend for producing grn files. But it was quite primitive, and kind of
> useless, so I didn't keep it.

That remark just made me put up some additional manual pages
that were contained in the final 4.4BSD-Lite2 SCCS here:

  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/

including

  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/grn.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/gremlin.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/gremlinlib.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/gr2ps.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/gprint.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/gdump.1

  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/ditroff.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/dterm.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/psroff.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/ptroff.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/ideal.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/mm.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/psdit.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/pscat.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/catdvi.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/tr2tex.1

  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/psplot.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/aedplot.1
  http://man.bsd.lv/4.4BSD-Lite2/versaplot.1

and about 130 others unrelated to the current topic, all from
the /local/man/ directory in the final CSRG SCCS tree.

So people can check for themselves what gremlin(1) does.

According to the Copyright notices in the source files,
Barry Roitblat wrote the gremlin(1) interactive picture editor
in 1982.  I find that remarkable - an interactive graphics
editor in 1982?  I did not have access to any CRT monitor
until 1984, when we finally got access to a HP series 200
workstation:

  https://www.hpmuseum.net/exhibit.php?class=1&cat=1

At the time Barry Roitblat wrote an interactive picture editor,
all i had access to was this:

  http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=171

And yes, i did use that, together with a daisy wheel printer, to
produce graphics output in 1982.  The "." character on the daisy
wheel wore off rather quickly.

You may be right that gremlin(1) is no longer very useful today.
But i think that in 1982, it was probably well ahead of its time.

Yours,
  Ingo