Re: [TUHS] keyboards and command names

[Harald Arnesen <skogtun@gmail.com>]

Andrew Newman [05/02/2020 22.03]:

> Somewhat related.  My first “real” job after university, and
> introduction to UNIX
> et al, was using IBM machines running VM/370 and the CMS single-user OS
> for user
> accounts.  CMS used long command names but, like some other OSes of its
> ilk, allowed
> you to define what it called “abbreviations" via a count of the minimum
> number of
> unique, leading, characters from which it could determine the actual
> command name.
> The CMS file copy program was “copyfile” but the abbreviation length, at
> least at
> our “shop", was 2 and everyone used “co”.  Similarly the editor “xedit”
> was “x”.
> I always found that amusing considering complaints about cryptic UNIX names.

Norsk Data's OS Sintran was the same, except that "COLD-START" (reboot
the OS) was defined twice, so you had to spell it out in full.
-- 
Hilsen Harald