From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: meillo@marmaro.de (markus schnalke)
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 13:23:18 +0100
Subject: [TUHS] A portrait of cut(1)
In-Reply-To: <87twotfl1a.fsf@fastmail.com>
References: <201511090139.tA91dCvK006536@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
 <627C631F-2B0E-45FC-97DB-7A8FE4DBB3B8@ccc.com>
 <201511091358.tA9Dw35f010741@coolidge.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
 <1ZwFUy-77P-00@marmaro.de> <87twotfl1a.fsf@fastmail.com>
Message-ID: <1ZwUQo-5Yl-00@marmaro.de>

[2015-11-10 19:16] Random832 <random832 at fastmail.com>
> 
> Did you happen to find out what GWRL stands for, in the the comments at
> the top of early versions of cut.c and paste.c?
> 
> /* cut : cut and paste columns of a table (projection of a relation) (GWRL) *
> /
> /* Release 1.5; handles single backspaces as produced by nroff    */
> /* paste: concatenate corresponding lines of each file in parallel. Release 1.4 (GWRL) */
> /*        (-s option: serial concatenation like old (127's) paste command */
> 
> For that matter, what's the "old (127's) paste command" it refers to?

Unfortunately I have no clue, for neither of them.

To resolve ``GWRL'', insider knowledge seems to be needed. (Or a cool
party with creative buddies, of course! (Today's the opening of the
carnival season in Germany ... that could be an opportunity. :-D ))

``127'', whatever system that might be, it surely predates UNIX.
Background knowledge from the time back then will be necessary.

I can provide neither of them ... and searching for such stuff is
difficult because the terms and their context are too generic.
(``cut and paste'' is by no means a valuable context if you try
to search for it. ;-) )

Maybe someone older or more inside has some ideas ...


meillo