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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.netspace.net.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!arclight.uoregon.edu!news.bc.net!unixg.ubc.ca!alph02.triumf.ca!shoppa From: shoppa@alph02.triumf.ca (Tim Shoppa) Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: On the Naming of UNIX Things Date: 16 Nov 1996 20:40:51 GMT Organization: TRIUMF, Canada's National Meson Facility Lines: 34 Message-ID: <56l8sj$6d2@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca> References: <55vhpf$q3o@mail1.wg.waii.com> <569rkk$gv0@orac.mon.rnb.com> <1996111212371894551@[192.159.32.153]> <wzzq0kfrg0.fsf@expernet26.expernet.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: alph02.triumf.ca Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:26497 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1537 alt.folklore.computers:124764 In article <wzzq0kfrg0.fsf@expernet26.expernet.com>, Peter Ludemann <ludemann@expernet26.expernet.com> wrote: >I seem to remember 3-letter commands for RT-11, but the only one that >comes to mind now is "PIP" (Peripheral Interchange Program"). Most RT-11 Keyboard monitor commands can be abbreviated to 3 characters, but you are talking about the system utilities if you are thinking of PIP. Most of the commonly used system utilities are only 3 characters - here's the list for RT-11 v5.6: BINCOM (Binary File Comparison Program) BUP (Backup utility program) DIR (Directory program) DUMP (Dump program) DUP (Device Utility program) FILEX (File Exchange Program) FORMAT (Volume formatting program) LD (Logical Disk Subsetting Utility) LIBR (Librarian) LINK (Linker) MACRO (Macro-11 assembler) PIP (Peripheral Interchange Program) RESORC (Resource Utility Program) SRCCOM (Source Comparison) As you can see, only 4 of the 14 are 3 characters long. Note that the above utility programs can be called through Keyboard monitor commands, which can be abbreviated to 1 or 2 characters in many cases. The concept of a "keyboard monitor" with abbreviable commands is completely foreign to Unix - but this will hardly matter after January 17, 2038! Tim. (shoppa@triumf.ca)