Asri-unix.372
net.unix-wizards
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!chico!esquire!peter@Berkeley
Wed Dec 30 23:17:54 1981

Answer to "criticisms of Unix"

Here's a dandy little shell script that I slaved over for 8.3 msec.
It fixes everything that's wrong with Unix!

mv /bin/cat /bin/ty
mv /bin/rm  /bin/del
mv /usr/bin/grep /usr/bin/search

I predict that, with a lot more work, this could be turned into a shell
script that leaves the original commands in place (using the mysterious
"ln" command).  This would obviate the trivial task of finding every
reference to "cat", "rm", and "grep" on the system.

On a more serious note; we have a large number of novice users who haven't
the slightest interest in Computer Science or any of its friends/relations.
For them we provide a set of interface programs that do the extra handholding
that we thought they'd need.  For example, "del" lists all the files you've
asked it to delete and waits for a confirmation.  Many people use these and
about once a week someone will come to me and say, in great excitement,
"Wow!  I just found this great command; it's called `rm' and you don't have
to type a confirmation!"  We smile knowingly and warn them about "rm * .bak"
and everybody's happy, (well, almost).
						Peter Langston