5 ms·

It's worth noting that M4 was invented by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. GNU M4 might be what you're using, but it is definitely not the original version,

by chc4 5y ago

It's worth noting that M4 was invented by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. GNU M4 might be what you're using, but it is definitely not the original version, and you probably shouldn't attribute M4 to GNU any more than you do C because they made GCC.

hanslub42 5y ago
"Invented" is a bit of a strong word here: there were "M" and "m3" macro processors before m4. Christopher Stratcheys GPM (General Purpose Macroprocessor, https://academic.oup.com/comjnl/article/8/3/225/336044 https://academic.oup.com/comjnl/article/8/3/225/336044) was the first macro processor where macros can occur anywhere in the source text - just like in m4. That makes it the first general such program, and not just the macro processor for some specific programming language (like the preprocessor of a macro assembler)
cat199 5y ago
doesn't help that gnu manual pages & documentation tend to completely ignore the origins of the tool they are emulating (compare HISTORY sections of BSD userland vs GNU coreutils ones as one simple example)
- lmm 5y ago
  Part of the point of GNU was to be a fresh implementation with no copyright dependency on Unix.
  - repiret 5y ago
    That doesn’t preclude acknowledging the history of the tool.
    - cat199 5y ago
      ... which would be essentially plagiarism in other fields.
- antientropic 5y ago
  The GNU M4 manual has a sizable section acknowledging its precursors: https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html#History https://www.gnu.org/software/m4/manual/m4.html#History
  - cat199 5y ago
    perhaps the full manual, but the manual page (which is what I specifically mentioned) has quite the opposite: $ man gm4 |sed -ne 119,121p AUTHOR Written by Rene' Seindal.