From: wkt@tuhs.org (Warren Toomey)
Subject: [TUHS] Command-line options
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2016 07:29:25 +1000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20160325212925.GA5761@minnie.tuhs.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <201603251443.u2PEh8OZ019856@skeeve.com>
On Fri, Mar 25, 2016 at 05:43:08PM +0300, Aharon Robbins wrote:
> One of Unix's signature hallmarks is its terseness: short command names
> like mv, ln, cp, cc, ed; short options (a dash and a single letter),
> programs with just a few, if any, options at all, and short path names:
> "usr" instead of "user", "src" instead of "source" and so on.
> I have long theorized that the reason for the short names is that since
> typing was so physically demanding, it was natural to make the command
> names (and all the rest) be short and easier to type. I don't know if
> this was a conscious decision, but I suspect it more likely to have been
> an unconscious / natural one.
I'm going to throw in an aside at this point. PDP-7 Unix packed 2 characters
per 18-bit word. So, when comparing things, it's easy to compare one
word against another. I believe this is why command-line options were
2 characters (e.g. -l, -v, -c, -d) etc.
Cheers, Warren
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-03-25 21:29 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 24+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-03-25 14:43 [TUHS] Is the Teletype the unsung hero of Unix? Aharon Robbins
2016-03-25 19:47 ` Jaap Akkerhuis
2016-03-25 21:03 ` Diomidis Spinellis
2016-03-28 20:12 ` scj
2016-04-01 14:06 ` Dave Horsfall
2016-04-01 22:41 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-03-25 21:29 ` Warren Toomey [this message]
2016-03-25 23:25 ` [TUHS] Command-line options Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-03-26 2:10 ` John Cowan
2016-03-26 3:09 ` Charles Anthony
2016-03-26 19:43 ` Clem Cole
2016-03-26 20:54 ` Ronald Natalie
2016-03-26 22:05 ` John Cowan
2016-03-27 1:25 ` Dave Horsfall
2016-03-27 1:50 ` Charles Anthony
2016-03-27 2:01 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-03-27 6:18 ` Random832
2016-03-27 6:57 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-03-27 19:38 ` Dave Horsfall
2016-03-27 1:35 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-03-26 3:54 ` [TUHS] Is the Teletype the unsung hero of Unix? Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-03-26 4:30 ` Steve Nickolas
2016-03-26 5:44 ` Greg 'groggy' Lehey
2016-03-26 8:33 ` Steve Nickolas
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