On Thu, Jan 9, 2020 at 4:54 PM Norman Wilson <norman@oclsc.org> wrote:

As I heard the story in the UNIX room decades ago (and at least five
years after the event), Steve tried and tried to convince Ken to
rename od so that he could have the symmetry he wanted. Ken was
unmoved.

I admit I'm not sure which solution is 'least astonishing.' Just think if DEC had used hex for years, instead of octal ;-)