From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: paul.winalski at gmail.com (Paul Winalski) Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 16:43:16 -0400 Subject: [COFF] [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History In-Reply-To: References: <201910272031.x9RKVSem124842@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> <51f2d838-d097-a93f-b44d-9c670d206d2b@tnetconsulting.net> Message-ID: On 10/28/19, Dave Horsfall 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.