From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 08:57:30 -0700
From: Tom Duff td@ten
Subject: Original name of sam, alef, acid, acme etc?
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 4f260d70-eac8-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025
Message-ID: <19961016155730.b0-7DTvK5RWGUuAioEzBxgk6VFgVPwFgFEx1_NSC2xE@z>

> Although it may sound silly, I would like to know what are the origin of
> names such as sam, alef, acid, acme, mothra
The original Unix editor was called ed,
so Rob called his first screen editor jim,
and the next one sam.  I don't think there's
any more to it than that -- you certainly
won't get a straight answer from him.  Alef
is named analagously to B and C, just choosing
from a new alphabet.  Ask philw about acid.
Acme is probably named after Wile E. Coyote's
equipment supplier, by the time it appeared I'd
given up on asking Rob about names of programs.
Mothra is named after the Japanese horror-movie
monster.  See the `100% mothra-compatible' logo
on <http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/index.html>
for a picture.  I picked the name because
Netscape's browser is called Mozilla (a portmanteau
of Mosaic (its progenitor) and Godzilla) and mothra
is its Plan 9 `competition.'

Speaking of mothra, I used to be embarassed and annoyed
that I couldn't make a product as comprehensive &
featuriferous as Netscape's.  Having been stuck using
Mozilla for a couple of months (I don't have a Plan 9
machine at Pixar), I'm astounded at how poorly it
performs.  The only things it beats mothra on are
features that I never got to, mainly tables, hard-copy
output & netnews.  Its page formatting sucks dry air,
its navigation buttons never do what you want, it
makes it as difficult as possible to type urls, its
menu layout is, at best, bizarre.  I look forward to
not having to use it any more.

-- 
Tom Duff