19 Nov
2020
19 Nov
'20
4:41 a.m.
On Wed, 18 Nov 2020, Clem Cole wrote:
In our exchange, someone observed suggested that Joy
might have picked
it up because the HOME key was part of the tilde key on the ADM3A, which
were popular at UCB [i.e. the reason hjkl are the movement keys on vi is
the were embossed on the top of those keys on the ADM3A]. It also was
noted that the ASR-33 lacks a ~ key on its keyboard. But Lesk
definitely needed something to represent a remote user's home directory
because each system was different, so he was forced to use something.
The ADM-3A was one of the best terminals ever made.
It was also noted that there was plenty of
cross-pollination going on as
students and researchers moved from site to site, so it could have been BTL
to UCB, vice-versa, or some other path altogether.
So two questions for this august body are:
1. Where did the ~ as $HOME convention come to UNIX?
Gawd... I think I saw it in PWB, but I'm likely wrong.
2. Did UNIX create the idiom, or was there an earlier
system such as CTSS,
TENEX, ITS, MTS, TSS, or the like supported it?
No idea. but given that Unix inherited a lot of stuff....
-- Dave