Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.spitfire.i.gajendra.net!not-for-mail From: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Don Norman: The Truth About Unix Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:50:23 -0000 (UTC) Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Message-ID: <10lfs3f$nn6$1@reader2.panix.com> References: <10lb6d7$3she5$1@dont-email.me> <10ld3fb$gsk$1@reader2.panix.com> Injection-Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 14:50:23 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: reader2.panix.com; posting-host="spitfire.i.gajendra.net:166.84.136.80"; logging-data="24294"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com" X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010) Originator: cross@spitfire.i.gajendra.net (Dan Cross) Xref: csiph.com alt.folklore.computers:233758 In article , Niklas Karlsson wrote: >On 2026-01-28, Scott Lurndal wrote: >> >> DEC's VMS supported abbreviating commands >> to the shortest unique first characters of the command name. > >And appears to have been an inspiration for the Cisco IOS CLI, where you I think that mainly came from TENEX/TOPS-20; if you look at the history of Cisco, that sort of makes sense given the folks involved and their backgrounds. Some XKL Darkstar parts can (still?) boot TOPS-20. >can do the same thing. Also you'll go "show X" much the same as you >would in VMS to get the status for something. > >*nix shells eventually evolved completion, which is at least a coarse >approximation of the abbreviation ability, at least for the part of the >command that is an actual executable... though you can program it to do >more if you put enough effort in. Completion and abbreviation aren't exactly the same thing, and completion in the TOPS-20 sense is much more evolved than anything Unix has done. It's a shame that the industry collectively is so fixated on Unix-y systems and spends so little looking at other historical designs: there are a lot of great lessons to be learned out there, if folks would just take a look. - Dan C.