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).
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