From: norman@oclsc.org (Norman Wilson)
Subject: [TUHS] Unix taste (Re: terminal - just for fun)
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2014 18:24:31 -0400 (EDT) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20140806222431.5C7471DE37E@lignose.oclsc.org> (raw)
Davwe Horsfall:
I was surprised when "chdir" became "cd", but I suppose it fits the
philosophy of 2-letter commands.
======
Don't forget that the original spelling, in the PDP-7 UNIX that
had no published manual, was ch.
The 1/e manual spells it chdir. I remember that in one of
Dennis's retrospective papers, he remarks on the change, and
says he can't remember why.
I once asked in the UNIX room if anyone could recall why ch
changed to chdir. Someone, I forget who, suggested it was
because the working directory was the only thing that could
be changed: no chmod or chown in the PDP-7 days. I don't know
whether that's true.
Norman Wilson
Toronto ON
next reply other threads:[~2014-08-06 22:24 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 32+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2014-08-06 22:24 Norman Wilson [this message]
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2014-08-06 22:19 Norman Wilson
2014-08-04 20:21 Norman Wilson
2014-08-04 22:24 ` A. P. Garcia
2014-08-05 2:41 ` Andy Kosela
2014-08-05 3:32 ` Warner Losh
2014-08-04 2:54 Norman Wilson
2014-08-04 3:11 ` Lyndon Nerenberg
2014-08-04 7:04 ` Dave Horsfall
2014-08-04 9:12 ` Steve Nickolas
2014-08-03 16:48 Noel Chiappa
2014-08-03 17:09 ` John Cowan
2014-08-03 11:49 Noel Chiappa
2014-08-03 12:14 ` Steve Nickolas
2014-08-03 16:26 ` John Cowan
2014-08-04 13:59 ` Tim Bradshaw
2014-08-04 14:53 ` A. P. Garcia
2014-08-03 0:48 Noel Chiappa
2014-08-03 8:00 ` A. P. Garcia
2014-08-02 21:18 Noel Chiappa
2014-08-02 23:44 ` A. P. Garcia
2014-08-02 16:47 Noel Chiappa
2014-08-02 18:51 ` Ian King
2014-08-02 14:28 Doug McIlroy
2014-08-02 14:00 ` Larry McVoy
2014-08-02 15:51 ` Steve Nickolas
2014-08-02 16:07 ` John Cowan
2014-08-02 17:28 ` Benjamin Huntsman
2014-08-02 19:50 ` Dave Horsfall
2014-08-02 16:04 ` Diomidis Spinellis
2014-08-02 16:03 ` Larry McVoy
2014-08-02 19:36 ` Dave Horsfall
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