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From: ron@topaz.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: RE: UNIX NAME ABBREVIATIONS
Message-ID: <16550@topaz.rutgers.edu>
Date: Tue, 17-Nov-87 15:23:59 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.16550
Posted: Tue Nov 17 15:23:59 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Nov-87 22:47:44 EST
References: <10376@brl-adm.ARPA>
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Lines: 39

> grep    from Globally search for Regular Expression and Print
More correctly from the editor command "g/re/p" where re is
regular expression.

> ditroff frm Device Independent ROFF
Device Independent TROFF.

> su      from Substitute User
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.  This is a perversion of the acronym from
when it was expanded to take a user name as an argument.  Original
unix manuals list it as "become SuperUser"

>foobar  from foo divided by 2 pi
While it is unclear of the precise origins of foobar, this one
seems unlikely.  UNIX started with foo.  It is not certain whether
foobar is a collision between foo and "fubar - fouled (or worse) up
beyond all recognition) or whether it is the negation or other bar
operation on foo.
   

Some other obscure ones

mdec (as in /usr/mdec) - from MAINDEC dec maintenance, the words that
    appear on the DEC diagnostic paper tapes.

iot, emt - These are PDP-11 trap generating instructions I/O Trap
    and emulator trap that were bounded to Signals in PDP-11 UNIX.

tty - teletype (people are beginning to forget what teletypes were)

ksr, asr - nomenclature of teletypes, Keyboard Send/Receive, Automatic
    Send/Recieve.  The latter having a paper tape punch.

EMACS - editor macros (not a UNIX name in itself, but frequently found
	there these days).

crt - c run time

-Ron