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Aucbvax.1996 fa.works utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!BENSON@UTAH-20 Tue Jun 30 01:57:09 1981 Re: Tools for personal workstations Mike's response (more like a Bronx cheer) forces me to clarify some of the points I was trying to make:

First, I could not say that the design of Unix is not simple, clean and well-integrated from top to bottom. In fact, I only objected to one thing, certainly not a central point, which is the cryptic command names (cat, mv, rm, sh, ls, grep). These are almost as mnemonic as PDP-10 opcode names. (Jrst enough for some, I suppose.)

Second, Emacs is no Mies van der Rohe creation. The implementation is at three levels, MIDAS, TECO, and Emacs keyboard input, the first two of which are incompatible with each other and sane human beings. The single character commands are also cryptic, but there is readily accesible online documentation for them. Common editing commands are often used in rapid succesion, necessitating brevity. (Although I believe I saw an editor described in Software P & E using the Tops-20 COMND JSYS which looked somewhat interesting for novices.) Mike (apparently) objects to the use of extra shift keys for commands. This is required because there is no "insert mode" in Emacs; what you see is what you get. That is what distinguises it from every other editor I have used, and is the most important aspect of its design. Also, by not requiring special editing keys or other input devices such as a mouse, a good typist can remain in registration when entering commands.

Unix was designed when CPU power, memory, address space and terminal bandwidth were scarce resources. Its popularity (in academic circles) is due to its accessibility, portability and malleability. I only hope in extolling its virtues we do not overlook its shortcomings.

-- Eric

P.S. Sorry for getting a little off the topic of personal workstations per se, but I believe this is relevant to system design. -------

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