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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!tezcat!news.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news1.best.com!nntp1.best.com!usenet From: Marco S Hyman <marc@dumbcat.codewright.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: 15 Nov 1996 17:45:42 -0800 Organization: codewright Lines: 18 Message-ID: <x7afsiyfqx.fsf@dumbcat.codewright.com> References: <1996111206190712643@[192.159.32.2]> <56ivb8$kbc@uwm.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: dumbcat.codewright.com X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26460 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1522 alt.folklore.computers:124659 jgd@alpha1.csd.uwm.edu (John G Dobnick) writes: > Perhaps the most important reason, or at least the driving force behind > short command names, was the TELETYPE itself! You can type at a > _maximum_ rate of 10 characters per second. Period. You have no-key 10 CPS... you got to use 10 CPS :-) You mean the reason I type slow today is because of the years spent using a TELETYPE model 28 KSR? 60 wpm, a whopping 45.45 baud -- 6 cps. It spoke baudot code, a 5 bit code that required two codes (FIGS and LTRS) to give a reasonable number of characters (assuming you wanted to use the numbers 0-9 in addition to the letters A-Z). The model 28 and learning how to type on the old 02x family of keypunches probably explains why I still think there is only one shift key on a keyboard. // marc