Return to BSD News archive
#! rnews 1830 bsd Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!hunter.premier.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!mr.net!news.mr.net!swb From: swb@mercury.campbell-mithun.com (Shawn Barnhart) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 12:37:18 -0600 Organization: Chaos Lines: 25 Message-ID: <1996111212371894551@[192.159.32.153]> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> <560146$t9c@mail1.wg.waii.com> <E0L92J.4tM@world.std.com> <kbibb.847601696@shellx> <1996111206190712643@[192.159.32.2]> <569rkk$gv0@orac.mon.rnb.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 192.159.32.153 X-Newsreader: MacSOUP 2.2b3 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26310 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1477 alt.folklore.computers:124478 Hugh J.E. Davies <hdavies@kzin.mon.rnb.com> wrote: > swb@mercury.campbell-mithun.com (Shawn Barnhart) writes: > >I thought I read someplace that one of the original incarnations of Unix > >could only support two character file names. > > Err, no. > > > Hence many of the basic > >system commands (ls, mv, cp, rm, cd, and so forth) are only two > >characters. But I like the idea that it was attributed to the amount of > >effort to type the commands into a printing terminal. > > And this is the accepted explaination. Are there many other OS of Unix vintage that have as many two character commands? I can't remember the HP2000 we used in elementary school (ca 1976) having two character commands, but I do remember using clunky teletypes on them. Certainly when that machine was developed, there were no more high speed video terminals in use than in the Unix development time period. -- Shawn Barnhart swb@mercury.campbell-mithun.com