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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!wivax!dyer
From: dyer@wivax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: re: tops-20 command 'language'
Message-ID: <18533@wivax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Aug-83 20:30:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: wivax.18533
Posted: Mon Aug 22 20:30:05 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 23-Aug-83 23:55:42 EDT
References: sask.290, <1447@shark.UUCP> <212@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, Ma.
Lines: 15

As far back as 1974, Bruce Borden's "Harvard Shell" implemented command
completion for a subset of commonly-used commands.  Initially it ran in
RAW mode, with automatic completion after the 1st two letters of the command
were typed.  Subsequent arguments could be prompted for by hitting the ESC key.

Later, the V6 shell and the Harvard Shell were merged, and ESC optionally
expanded commands known to the shell; otherwise, it acted like the
vanilla V6 shell.  Naturally, a special TTY driver was needed to support
this efficiently.

This feature was taken straight from BBN TENEX, though it lacked much of
TENEX's "hit-an-ESC-anywhere" generality.  At that time, it was thought
that the UNIX shell was too arcane for Harvard students.  The Harvard
Shell is still in use on their 2.8BSD and 4.1BSD systems, primarily by
naive users.  Most graduate quickly to the C shell.