Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Text Executive Programming Language

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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete‎. The one opinion advocating keeping by Jedishrfu does not adequately address the concerns evoked by the nominator; in particular, they do not link to or otherwise clearly reference any potentially relevant coverage of the subject in independent reliable sources. Sandstein 09:20, 5 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Text Executive Programming Language

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Fails WP:GNG and WP: NOTWEBHOST. We are not a website for hosting documentation, and this subject is not notable. Either of these being true is sufficient for deletion. The Knuth reference is a passing mention, and other citations appear to reference manuals for the language itself. There was a PROD more than a decade ago and the article's creator removed it. HyperAccelerated (talk) 17:53, 10 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Comment: This seems mostly true but there is "Introduction to the TEX language - Part I" in the references section, which being in a magazine might not just be a reference guide. Mrfoogles (talk) 18:01, 10 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That reference can be found on Google Books. The author mentions that they've served as an advisor in the development of the language. It's not an independent source, and even if it is, we generally need multiple sources to establish notability. HyperAccelerated (talk) 18:16, 10 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The author was Bob Bemer, a notable computer scientist known as the Father of ASCII. He was an evangelist for TEX and often wrote programs that forced the developers to add more features to the language, so in essence, he expanded the language capabilities while not being on the team.

I can't help but feel that removing this article, which has been on Wikipedia since 2007, serves any useful purpose. It describes a language that was part of the diaspora of computer software of the era. Jedishrfu (talk) 17:33, 20 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Computing-related deletion discussions. Shellwood (talk) 18:30, 10 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Software-related deletion discussions. WCQuidditch ☎ ✎ 20:00, 10 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I wrote the TEX article. I used the language while working at the GE Telecommunications and Information Processing Operation in Schenectady NY in the 1980s. GE was a big customer of Honeywell.

TEX was a software product offering for timesharing from Honeywell that we used to test each new OS release. it came with a large body of testing code and an application support library known as Texas. Bob Bemer was a Texan, a noted computer scientist and an evangelist for Tex.

My understanding is that both TEX and AWK were created around the same time using regular expressions and line editing ideas from Multics, Unix and GCOS operating systems. The notion of extending a line editor with programmability like TEX is quite novel.

Bob Bemer gave a talk on it at the HLSUA conference showcasing a screen editor written TEX. He als wrote about it on his blog which is long gone and a three part article for Interface Age. Bitsavers has a downloadable copy of the TEX manual. The interface age magazines can be found on the Internet Archive site.

Currently, there is no implementation running other one running on some old Honeywell 6000 timesharing service somewhere in the world. The original developers are also long gone and Bob Bemer died some years ago.

It would be a shame to lose this small piece of computer history. It was the primary reason I wrote the article. Jedishrfu (talk) 00:48, 15 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

So do you have sources that shows that this subject meets WP: GNG? I'm uninterested in hearing about anything else, and it's very disrespectful to inject paragraphs upon paragraphs upon paragraphs of your own off-topic nonsense into this discussion. Blogs, first-party manuals, and mirrors of the software do not count towards notability, and I'm not going to waste my time fishing around for some magazine for you. HyperAccelerated (talk) 01:46, 15 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Honestly, Wikipedia rules and regulations are foreign to me.

All I know is this was a real Honeywell offering deserving of a page on Wikipedia. But should you decide to remove it there's little I can do except to look elsewhere to document these arcane seldom used languages.

I imagine roughly a hundred people would likely have used it based on it being offered as an extra licensing charge. The only reason GE bought it was to get the testing code as GE did customizations to the Honeywell OS prior to use on GE machines.

i deleted the content since its considered so unnotable. I'm sorry to have bothered you with such nonsense. Jedishrfu (talk) 06:26, 15 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"very disrespectful to inject paragraphs upon paragraphs upon paragraphs of your own off-topic nonsense" "not going to waste my time fishing around for some magazine" These comments are not only obviously rude but borderline personal attacks to boot @HyperAccelerated. Nobody here is forcing you to fish for anything. If you can't be civil with people acting in good faith, don't reply. DigitalIceAge (talk) 01:19, 16 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nothing I wrote is intended to be interpreted as a remark about the character of any particular editor, including the person I was responding to. If you feel that it is, then I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. HyperAccelerated (talk) 04:51, 16 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Relisting comment: Relisting. Whether you are arguing about Keeping this article or are in favor of Deleting it, we're talking about an article on an online encyclopedia, not life and death issues. If you find yourself too invested in the outcome that you start being flippant or harsh to other editors, it's time to find another activity to spend your time on, at least for the short-term. Civility is more important than whatever happens with this article.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:31, 17 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Eddie891 ^Talk _Work 07:51, 25 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Delete per failing WP:GNG. There are hosts for teaching these types of languages already. The history of such a topic though is not covered in independent reliable sources. I did find the Honeywell source, but it was incredible brief and not enough for a full article. Conyo14 (talk) 21:54, 25 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.