Return to BSD News archive
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!howland.erols.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!sdd.hp.com!bone.think.com!blanket.mitre.org!news.mitre.org!mwunix!jcmorris
From: jcmorris@mwunix.mitre.org (Joe Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers
Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things
Date: 15 Nov 1996 14:39:46 GMT
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <56hvbi$7c4@top.mitre.org>
References: <55vhpf$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> <1996111212371894551@[192.159.32.153]> <wzzq0kfrg0.fsf@expernet26.expernet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mwunix.mitre.org
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26471 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1528 alt.folklore.computers:124690
Peter Ludemann <ludemann@expernet26.expernet.com> writes:
>The operator's console for IBM's OS/360 (MFT, MVT, etc., and as far as
>I know this is still true for MVS) would accept single-letter
>abbreviations for commands. Some were obvious, such "R" for "REPLY"
>and "Q" for "QUERY", but others were more obscure such as "A" for
>"RELEASE". The oldest consoles were 1050s, essentially modified
>Selectric typewriters (probably the greatest design ever in terms of
>keyboard feel), so clunkiness of input was not an excuse, as was
>(allegedly) the case with Unix's 2-letter commands.
Minor quibble, but the S/360 console was a type 1052 machine (model 7),
not a 1050. Like all Selectrics, it ran at 14.6 characters/second,
so while it was faster than a 10 cps TeleType, it still was slower
than anything we're used to today. The machine type (1052) came from
its use as one of the components of the 1050 family of remote terminals
components, from which it was taken and modified to become the standard
S/360 console.
The abbreviations (as noted above) for the commands were single-character
and where possible used the first character of the full name, without
worrying about ambiguity. (R was the abbreviation for "REPLY" and not
for "RELEASE"). Where the first letter was already in use the abbreviation
would be the first letter of the full command name that wasn't already
spoken for -- for example, "A" was used for RELEASE because "R", "E",
and "L" were already in use.
In some cases even this failed: the HALT command ("HALT EOD" was roughly
analogous to the UNIX command 'shutdown -h'; "EOD" stood for "End Of Day")
had *no* characters not already in use, so it got the abbreviation "Z".
Joe Morris / MITRE