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Path: utzoo!watmath!idallen
From: idallen@watmath.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: expert-friendly: are long names a waste of time?
Message-ID: <6015@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Oct-83 16:31:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.6015
Posted: Sun Oct 23 16:31:58 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Oct-83 00:30:35 EDT
References: <558@minn-ua.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 19

But most short names are abbreviations for long names.  RM is an abbreviation
for REMOVE FILE, RMDIR is an abbreviation for REMOVE DIRECTORY.

If you claim that nobody will remember a long name, then I claim
you make it worse by forcing people to remember the abbreviation too.

If you want to argue about what people will remember, then we should
talk about ways to minimize the amount of stuff that has to be remembered.
I don't know if memorizing arbitrary abbreviations is easier than
remembering whole words, but I do know that memorizing fewer things is
better than memorizing a lot of things.

Teach me command names in a cross-product approach, where I only need
to remember a few verbs and objects.  Allow me synonyms for each.
(Let DATASET be synonymous with FILE; let DELETE be synonymous with
REMOVE.)  Then, I can build most of my commands using the verbs and
objects I know.
-- 
        -IAN!  (Ian! D. Allen)      University of Waterloo