Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 21:02:18 -0500 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> To: "Gary W. Swearingen" <underway@comcast.net> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A bit of trivia: what does usr stand for? Message-ID: <3FE4FF2A.4050902@potentialtech.com> In-Reply-To: <qz1xqz9e3m.xqz@mail.comcast.net> References: <5.0.2.1.1.20031220224013.02cf25c0@popserver.sfu.ca> <3FE4D580.6050001@potentialtech.com> <qz1xqz9e3m.xqz@mail.comcast.net>
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Gary W. Swearingen wrote: > Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> writes: > > >>The urban myth is believeable, though, since it seems silly to abbreviate >>"user" with "usr" ... I mean, you're only saving 1 letter. > > Most programmers back then didn't think it was at all silly. In > addition to the already-mentioned teletype, some of us had to program > on punch cards (eg, my college) and via 110 baud terminals (eg, my > first job). Not only typing was slow; correcting typing errors with > the primative "line editors" was even slower, and the less you had to > type, the fewer errors you had to correct. Abbreviations were > rampant, with "unnecessary" syllables and vowels being dropped > whenever feasible. That "usr" might have been a victim of habit, or, > more likely, the high frequency of typing it was considered. It's easy to forget where much of this comes from. Teletypes were before my time, but I do remember edlin ... and I assume that's the class of editor you're talking about. -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com
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