From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 4f5526f7 for ; Tue, 11 Feb 2020 03:54:13 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id F3BA29BD9F; Tue, 11 Feb 2020 13:54:11 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0631F9BCEB; Tue, 11 Feb 2020 13:53:44 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 360C29BCE8; Tue, 11 Feb 2020 13:53:41 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D2AC09BCDE for ; Tue, 11 Feb 2020 13:53:40 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 4176935E0B6; Mon, 10 Feb 2020 19:53:40 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2020 19:53:40 -0800 From: Larry McVoy To: Doug McIlroy Message-ID: <20200211035340.GA852@mcvoy.com> References: <202002110332.01B3WwWE015186@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <202002110332.01B3WwWE015186@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Subject: Re: [TUHS] V9 shell [was Re: Warner's Early Unix Presentation] X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: tuhs@tuhs.org Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Mon, Feb 10, 2020 at 10:32:58PM -0500, Doug McIlroy wrote: > > What i like is the autocorrect feature in v8: > > > > $ cd /usr/blot > > /usr/blit > > $ pwd > > /usr/blit > > Here I am, editor of the v8 manual and unaware of the feature. > We now know that silent correction is a terrible idea. I had the same thought, cd /some/place/I/want/to/remove $PWD is /some/place/I/want/dont/remove rm -rf ./* oops. > Postel's principle: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal > in what you accept from others" was doctrine in early HTML > specs, and led to disastrous disagreement among browsers' > interpretation of web pages. Sadly, the "principle" lives on > despite its having been expunged from the HTML spec. I think Jon had the right intentions. HTML is different than a command prompt. > I didn't like some Lisp systems' DWIM (do what I mean) when I > first heard about the feature, and I like it even less 40-some > years on. I would probably have remonstrated with Rob had I > realized the shell was doing it. Yep, agreed. There are places where that works and there are most definitely places where they do not. The shell should not guess.