Afloyd.25 net.unix-wizards utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!mhtsa!eagle!ihnss!vax135!harpo!floyd!trb Mon Jan 11 12:25:58 1982 Naive Users, Command Completion Just because UNIX has some problems that people complain about, that does not mean that "... someone with no computer programming can be quickly trained to use ... UNIX" is a false statement. I think the statement "... someone with no FOO [experience] can be quickly trained to used BAR" has little effect on any argument about the virtues of BAR (though its converse might). (Someone with no car programming (design?) experience can be quickly trained to use ... Datsun? So what?) As long as my two cents are already on the table... I often use filename expansion as a form of command completion. For instance: % cd /usr/sp*/uucpp* It irritates me that I can't use filename expansion when I am redirecting. It would be nice (for me at least) if completion (a la twenex, right before your eyes) worked for filenames. Not for command options at all. Not a boon for the naive users but to weary fingered hackers who would rather call a file by a long useful name. I guess it would be nice for naive users too, for instance: % rm * would list the files that were to be deleted. Seems to me that it would be easy if we knew that all completions were filenames. Andy Tannenbaum, Bell Labs Whippany ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.