TYPSET was a document editor that was used with the 1964-released RUNOFF program, one of the earliest text formatting programs to see significant use. Of two earlier print/formatting programs DITTO and TJ-2, only the latter had, and introduced, text justification; RUNOFF also added pagination. The name RUNOFF, and similar names led to other formatting program implementations. By 1982 Runoff largely became associated with Digital Equipment Corporation and Unix computers. DEC used the terms VAX DSR and DSR to refer toVAX DIGITAL Standard Runoff.
Documentation for the Multics version of RUNOFF described it as "types out text segments in manuscript form."
Other versions and implementations
A later version of runoff for Multics was written in PL/I by Dennis Capps, in 1974. This runoff code was the ancestor of the machine languageroff that was written for the fledgling Unix. Other versions of Runoff were developed for various computer systems including Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-11minicomputer systems running RT-11, RSTS/E, RSX on Digital's PDP-10 and for OpenVMS on VAX minicomputers, as well as UNIVAC Series 90 mainframes using the EDT text editor under the VS/9operating system. These different releases of Runoff typically had little in common except the convention of indicating a command to Runoff by beginning the line with a period. Another notable program, based on work by Donald Knuth, is named TeX; a successor to TeX was announced by Knuth in 2010. The origin of IBM's SCRIPT software began in 1968 when "IBM contracted Stuart Madnick of MIT to write a simple document preparation..." to run onCP/67. He modeled it on MIT's CTSS RUNOFF.
Background
RUNOFF was written in 1964 for the CTSS operating system by Jerome H. Saltzer in MAD and FAP. It actually consisted of a pair of programs, TYPSET, and RUNOFF. RUNOFF had support for pagination and headers, as well as text justification. RUNOFF is a direct predecessor of the runoff document formatting program of Multics, which in turn was the ancestor of the roff and nroff document formatting programs of Unix, and their descendants. It was also the ancestor of FORMAT for the IBM System/360, and of course indirectly of every computerized word processing system. Likewise, RUNOFF for CTSS was the predecessor of the various RUNOFFs for DEC's operating systems, via the RUNOFF developed by the University of California, Berkeley's Project Genie for the SDS 940 system. The name is alleged to have come from the phrase at the time, I'll run off a copy.
Example
Input: When you're ready to order, call us at our toll free number: .BR .CENTER 1-800-555-xxxx .BR Your order will be processed within two working days and shipped
Output: When you're ready to order, call us at our toll free number: 1-800-555-xxxx Your order will be processed within two working days and shipped
