Mail Archives: djgpp/1997/03/14/11:54:43
Paul Derbyshire wrote:
** stuff deleted
> (And why, oh why must unix programs always have names that are just random
> letters chosen to be pronouncible but without meaning?
> DOS:
> dir(ectory)
> help (self explanatory)
> turbocpp (turbo c++) (ugh, but mnemonic name anyways)
> win(dows)
> exit
> more
> doom
> doom2
> duke3d
> quake :)
> setup
> netscape
> edit
> Unix:
> ls
ls is short for list, as in listing a directory. It was purposely
kept short because early teletype keyboards were very stiff and
difficult to type on.
> man
man is short for MANual page, like you are reading a manual.
> grep
grep is either known as General Regular Expression Parser or known as
the sequence of keys for searching for text in old-school unix ed.
(something like g/re/p i believe.
> groff
probably an acronym, like GNU R O F F ... I don't know offhand.
> make
Make is perfectly self-explanatory and short, why use longer
keywords, they just take longer to type.
> diffs
diffs i've never heard of, diff finds the differences between two
files (very useful).
> x
X _is_ the name of their windows, its either referred to just "X" or
"The X Window System"... "X Windows" is actually incorrect.
> lynx (not as descriptive as netscape, and not graphical)
Netscape is just the name of the company, how can another name be
more/lest descriptive? Anyways, to be totally correct it should be
called Navigator.exe because navigator is the name of the program,
netscape is the name of the company--it puts out many other products.
And obviously it can't be graphical if it was designed for
character-mode unix.
> emacs (This I know is an acronym. Not exactly obvious what it means
> though unlike edit)
Emacs was originally an acronym for Editor MACroS. The person who
first designed emacs said he picked the name emacs because 'E' was not
in use as an abbreviation at ITS at the time.
> pico (ditto)
Well pico was based off of pine, the popular mail reader... But other
than that I don't know where the name came frome.
> vi
vi is short for VIsual editor. As for its seemingly abstract
keyboard sequences, vi was designed at a time where not all computers
had F-keys and graphical widgets all over the place. vi was designed to
be functional, fast, powerful, and simple, not necessarily pretty... and
through a few days of using vi's more advanced features, you'll
appreciate its power. If you want a pretty editor, use pico.
Every other common unix command, like awk, sed, etc. also have rational
origins... Its not like they were picked completely from random or
specifically to be nonintuitive.
> )
> --
> .*. Where feelings are concerned, answers are rarely simple [GeneDeWeese]
> -() < When I go to the theater, I always go straight to the "bag and mix"
> `*' bulk candy section...because variety is the spice of life... [me]
> Paul Derbyshire ao950 AT freenet DOT carleton DOT ca,http://chat.carleton.ca/~pderbysh
Remember, however, that you can either set up an alias or a symbolic
link to each filename to call it whatever you want, so if you really
want, you can alias vi to edit. Doing the same thing wasn't possible in
DOS (without copying the entire file) until the invention of DOSKEY (as
far as I know).
But if you think about it, the names of the files you work with aren't
really that important in the end, what's more important is the
functionality of the utilities you are given. And I will put up the
functionality of the basic set of unix utilities against the basic set
of DOS utilities any day.
Steven Engelhardt
sengelha AT uiuc DOT edu
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