troff /T'rof/ or /trof/ n.[Unix] The gray eminence of Unix text
   processing; a formatting and phototypesetting program, written
   originally in PDP-11 assembler and then in barely-structured early C by
   the late Joseph Ossanna, modeled after the earlier ROFF which was in
   turn modeled after the {Multics} and {CTSS} program RUNOFF by Jerome
   Saltzer (_that_ name came from the expression "to run off a copy"). A
   companion program, {nroff}, formats output for terminals and line
   printers.

   In 1979, Brian Kernighan modified troff so that it could drive
   phototypesetters other than the Graphic Systems CAT. His paper
   describing that work ("A Typesetter-independent troff," AT&T CSTR #97)
   explains troff's durability. After discussing the program's "obvious
   deficiencies -- a rebarbative input syntax, mysterious and undocumented
   properties in some areas, and a voracious appetite for computer
   resources" and noting the ugliness and extreme hairiness of the code and
   internals, Kernighan concludes:

  None of these remarks should be taken as denigrating Ossanna's
  accomplishment with TROFF.  It has proven a remarkably robust
  tool, taking unbelievable abuse from a variety of preprocessors
  and being forced into uses that were never conceived of in the
  original design, all with considerable grace under fire.
  
   The success of {{TeX}} and desktop publishing systems have reduced
   `troff''s relative importance, but this tribute perfectly captures the
   strengths that secured `troff' a place in hacker folklore; indeed, it
   could be taken more generally as an indication of those qualities of
   good programs that, in the long run, hackers most admire.


Source: The Jargon File

TROFF
     Typesetter New Run-OFF (Unix)
     
     
Source: Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms