From: Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com>
To: Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org>
Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society <tuhs@tuhs.org>,
Computer Old Farts Followers <coff@tuhs.org>
Subject: Re: [TUHS] UNIX Backslash History
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 16:43:16 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CABH=_VReuYZSM4sTCss5gjcbEZm9rzTaKoA2z7D1QRnikMKE2w@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.21.9999.1910290544171.17400@aneurin.horsfall.org>
On 10/28/19, Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Oct 2019, Steve Nickolas wrote:
>
>> 86-DOS actually did use ":" as a prompt character. This was changed for
>> IBM's release, for some clone releases, and for MS-DOS 2.0.
>
> The best I've ever seen was RT-11's "." - talk about minimalist...
>
> Actually this thread probably belongs on COFF by now.
RT-11 was following standard DEC practice by using "." as its command
prompt. The "monitor dot" was the command prompt in both TOPS-10 and
TOPS-20.
Most DEC operating systems, including RT-11, TOPS-10/20, and VMS, used
"/" as a prefix on command options; "-" performs this function on UNIX
since "/" is the directory delimiter. Back in the days of stand-alone
programs, physical switches on the console were used to set program
options. This of course won't work when you have multiprogramming. I
was told that DEC chose "/" because it looks like a toggle switch.
Command options in fact were initially called "switches".
-Paul W.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2019-10-28 20:43 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2019-10-27 20:31 Doug McIlroy
2019-10-27 20:42 ` Richard Salz
2019-10-27 20:49 ` Charles Anthony
2019-10-27 23:01 ` Grant Taylor via TUHS
2019-10-28 1:11 ` Steve Nickolas
2019-10-28 12:00 ` Michael Kjörling
2019-10-28 13:44 ` Clem Cole
2019-10-28 15:08 ` Steve Nickolas
2019-10-28 18:47 ` Dave Horsfall
2019-10-28 20:43 ` Paul Winalski [this message]
2019-10-27 20:46 ` Bakul Shah
2019-10-28 17:36 ` Anthony Martin
2019-10-28 18:17 ` Charles Anthony
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2019-10-28 15:51 Noel Chiappa
2019-10-27 21:31 Noel Chiappa
2019-10-27 21:51 ` Charles Anthony
2019-10-26 9:39 Caipenghui
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