Aesquire.188 net.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!duke!chico!esquire!psl Thu Jan 7 00:39:22 1982 command completion The "original" Harvard Unix system did pdp10 style command completion by having a repertoire of known commands (i.e. a directory that was used as the repertoire). I, for one, found this a little too helpful. That shell was replaced by a shell which had optional command completion keyed by the escape key; e.g. "re[ESC]" becomes "rename" as you type it. This shell also had other handy features. Escape by itself expanded to the previous command, and since it did it "before your eyes" you could edit it with the standard editing characters ([DEL] for char delete, ^U for line kill, ^R for retype the line, etc.). Thus you could type "nroff -T300S -e -h -rx3 /usr/pub/macros/tug.nr section3.nr" and after seeing that the output on the terminal was what you wanted type the escape key followed by ">outfile" to do it again into a file. Csh has similar functionality, but requires more blind faith since you don't see the command until you've committed to it. I imagine Harvard is still using this shell (mostly Tucker Taft's work). ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.