Manual for PUB (a markup language in 1971) — Larry Tesler

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2024-11-15 10:00:05

PUB was an early scriptable markup language. It was similar in concept to today's web scripting languages, especially PHP and JavaScript. But, like Microsoft Word, its purpose was to create paginated documents. PUB was the brainchild of Les Earnest (also see his own page) of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Under his direction, I designed the language and implemented the compiler in 1971. It ran on the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-10.

PUB's intended users were computer programmers working at the AI Lab. The brand new ARPANET made it easy to transmit the PUB application, source code, and documents to other research universities, several of which had PDP-10 systems. In the next few years, dozens of Ph.D. candidates around the U.S. chose PUB to format their dissertations. Russ Taylor of Stanford modified the open source to add support for the Information International Inc. FR-80 Microfilm Recorder. Rich Johnsson of Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) did the same for the Xerox Graphics Printer (XGP), a predecessor to the laser printer.

PUB offered considerable power. But its target audience was small. The software was ridden with quirks that only became apparent after running the compiler and examining the output.

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