From: paul.winalski at gmail.com (Paul Winalski)
Subject: [COFF] [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 16:43:16 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CABH=_VReuYZSM4sTCss5gjcbEZm9rzTaKoA2z7D1QRnikMKE2w@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1910290544171.17400@aneurin.horsfall.org>
On 10/28/19, Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Oct 2019, Steve Nickolas wrote:
>
>> 86-DOS actually did use ":" as a prompt character. This was changed for
>> IBM's release, for some clone releases, and for MS-DOS 2.0.
>
> The best I've ever seen was RT-11's "." - talk about minimalist...
>
> Actually this thread probably belongs on COFF by now.
RT-11 was following standard DEC practice by using "." as its command
prompt. The "monitor dot" was the command prompt in both TOPS-10 and
TOPS-20.
Most DEC operating systems, including RT-11, TOPS-10/20, and VMS, used
"/" as a prefix on command options; "-" performs this function on UNIX
since "/" is the directory delimiter. Back in the days of stand-alone
programs, physical switches on the console were used to set program
options. This of course won't work when you have multiprogramming. I
was told that DEC chose "/" because it looks like a toggle switch.
Command options in fact were initially called "switches".
-Paul W.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-10-28 20:43 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <201910272031.x9RKVSem124842@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
[not found] ` <CAFH29trMHepMHK0C+UapNVXvjfnFMv5ov4W4YS+yOn4i+mhV0A@mail.gmail.com>
[not found] ` <CANV78LQa=VTZAMmVeRphTvrkxrkrAzgoU_-KqtdgqfWY2uUZJg@mail.gmail.com>
[not found] ` <51f2d838-d097-a93f-b44d-9c670d206d2b@tnetconsulting.net>
[not found] ` <alpine.BSF.2.02.1910272110350.28402@frieza.hoshinet.org>
[not found] ` <xzdtvssnnqfvfxq9swgv979g@localhost>
[not found] ` <alpine.BSF.2.02.1910281106290.77349@frieza.hoshinet.org>
2019-10-28 18:47 ` dave
2019-10-28 19:10 ` [COFF] Comparative promptology lars
2019-10-28 19:57 ` imp
2019-10-28 20:29 ` jpl.jpl
2019-10-29 10:30 ` skogtun
2019-10-29 10:32 ` skogtun
2019-10-30 8:19 ` tih
2019-10-31 1:19 ` [COFF] Fieldata characters (was: Comparative promptology) grog
2019-10-29 19:57 ` [COFF] Comparative promptology
2019-10-30 7:01 ` lars
[not found] ` <2daf68cb-1b16-05a5-af0c-6d64778b2da2@kilonet.net>
2019-10-28 23:13 ` krewat
2019-10-29 5:32 ` lars
2019-10-28 20:43 ` paul.winalski [this message]
2019-10-28 23:17 ` [COFF] [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History krewat
2019-10-31 1:59 ` gtaylor
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to='CABH=_VReuYZSM4sTCss5gjcbEZm9rzTaKoA2z7D1QRnikMKE2w@mail.gmail.com' \
--to=coff@minnie.tuhs.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).