Asri-unix.413 net.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!clyde@utexas-11 Mon Jan 4 19:30:13 1982 Reply to: On There are a number of problems with your complaints. True, renaming cat to type misses the point of the criticism (but it does make DEC-acclimated folks happy). The intrinsic problem with UNIX is that it was released upon the academic world while still a "programmers' system", and thusly lots of people got used to "cat", "grep" and such. I don't find "grep" (Global Regular Expression Pattern) to be that bad a name, partially because there are few programs like it on any other system (DEC doesn't provide one, a fact that I've sorely missed on our DEC-20s here). But there is another point of the UNIX philosophy that you have missed -- simplicity. The kernel provides low-level support for user programs, and thus doesn't eat the machine alive with system overhead (I shudder to think of the gnashing for the TOPS-20 COMND JSYS, as neat as it is). Functions such as glob and the shell BELONG AT USER LEVEL. What should happen is for BTL to restructure UNIX utility names and say "OK guys, this is the standard." The likelihood of this being the case is slim, for UNIX is already caught in the trap of any successful system -- one can't suddenly change everybody's world when there are a LOT of everybodys. Also the lassie-faire UNIX support by WE contributes to this. So where are we left in the meantime? If you have sufficient demand for a particular form of command naming, I would suggest ln /bin/cat /bin/type (at least to placate your users). Additionally let people know about your unhappiness with the command mnenomics (the greatest hope I see is with the UCB people, since their UNIX is a de facto standard for VAXen). ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.