27 Oct
2014
27 Oct
'14
7:16 p.m.
Norman Wilson writes today:
> ...
> -- Dennis, in one of his retrospective papers (possibly that
> in the 1984 all-UNIX BLTJ issue, but I don't have it handy at
> the moment) remarked about ch becoming chdir but couldn't
> remember why that happened.
> ...
The reference below contains on page 5 this comment by Dennis:
> (Incidentally, chdir was spelled ch; why this was
expanded when we
> went to the PDP-11 I don't remember)
@String{pub-PH = "Pren{\-}tice-Hall"}
@String{pub-PH:adr = "Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458, USA"}
@Book{ATT:AUS86-2,
author = "AT{\&T}",
key = "ATT",
title = "{AT}{\&T UNIX} System Readings and Applications",
volume = "II",
publisher = pub-PH,
address = pub-PH:adr,
pages = "xii + 324",
year = "1986",
ISBN = "0-13-939845-7",
ISBN-13 = "978-0-13-939845-2",
LCCN = "QA76.76.O63 U553 1986",
bibdate = "Sat Oct 28 08:25:58 2000",
bibsource = "http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/master.bib",
acknowledgement = ack-nhfb,
xxnote = "NB: special form AT{\&T} required to get correct
alpha-style labels.",
}
That chapter of that book comes from this paper:
@String{j-ATT-BELL-LAB-TECH-J = "AT\&T Bell Laboratories Technical
Journal"}
@Article{Ritchie:1984:EUT,
author = "Dennis M. Ritchie",
title = "Evolution of the {UNIX} time-sharing system",
journal = j-ATT-BELL-LAB-TECH-J,
volume = "63",
number = "8 part 2",
pages = "1577--1593",
month = oct,
year = "1984",
CODEN = "ABLJER",
DOI = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1984.tb00054.x"
ISSN = "0748-612X",
ISSN-L = "0748-612X",
bibdate = "Fri Nov 12 09:17:39 2010",
bibsource = "Compendex database;
http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/bib/bstj1980.bib",
abstract = "This paper presents a brief history of the early
development of the UNIX operating system. It
concentrates on the evolution of the file system, the
process-control mechanism, and the idea of pipelined
commands. Some attention is paid to social conditions
during the development of the system.",
acknowledgement = ack-nhfb,
fjournal = "AT\&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal",
topic = "computer systems programming",
}
Incidentally, on modern systems with tcsh and csh, I use both chdir
and cd; the long form does the bare directory change, whereas the
short form is an alias that also updates the shell prompt string and
the terminal window title.
I also have a personal alias "xd" (eXchange Directory) that is short
for the tcsh & bash sequence "pushd !*; cd .", allowing easy jumping
back and forth between pairs of directories, with updating of prompts
and window titles.
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