Early on, here in Faraway Land, I was told Unix command naming rules were these:

however can’t recall seeing it written:

2-7 chars - ie. short + reserved single chars for personal use

lower case

non-dictionary words - allowing 3rd party software a clear run

Of course, “sort” fails those rules :)

BSD didn’t use those rules (backup & restore).

For non touch typists, shorter commands & keywords are helpful.

On 16 Sep 2024, at 05:21, Rik Farrow <rik@rikfarrow.com> wrote:

Was the brevity typical of Unix command names a function of the tiny disk and memory available? Or more a function of having a Teletype 33 for input? Of course, it could simply be that 'cat' is more convenient than 'catenate'...

Rik

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Steve Jenkin, IT Systems and Design
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