Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!tikal!sigma!uw-nsr!john
From: john@uw-nsr.UUCP (John Sambrook)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Online Guru ..
Message-ID: <1197@uw-nsr.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 88 06:23:13 GMT
References: <2665@shamash.UUCP>
Reply-To: john@uw-nsr.UUCP (John Sambrook 548-4386)
Organization: UW-Bioengineering, Seattle, WA
Lines: 58

In article <2665@shamash.UUCP> jwabik@shamash.UUCP (Jeff Wabik) writes:
>Forgive if this is not the proper place to ask this question:
>
>We are finally starting to get "into" UNIX here, and are faced with
>teaching many "computer people" with no background in UNIX how to exist
>in a UNIX environment.  Of course, they don't like UNIX at all, and get
>aggrivated by the manuals, etc..  I'm curious if there exists (running
>on any system, be it PEE CEE, or UNIX) a sort_of, "Online Guru"..
>Software that you could literally ask, "How to I do disk backups", to
>which the response would be, "Dump is the UNIX utility that [...].
>Please see the manual page for dump(8) for further [...]."
>
>Anyone know of such a thing?

Funny you should ask.  I was thinking about this just the other day.
In the book "Planning and Understanding -- A Computational Approach to
Human Reasoning" the author, Robert Wilensky, describes `UC', the UNIX
Consultant.

On page 155 of the text the following transcript of a UC session is
presented:

  User:  How can I delete a file?
  UC:	 typing 'rm filename' will remove the file with the name filename
	 from your current directory
  User:	 move a file?
  UC:	 typing 'mv filename newfilename' will move the file with the name
	 filename to a file with the name newfilename
  User:	 How might a file be created in UNIX?
  UC:	 the best way to create a new file is to use the editor, 
	 i.e. - 'vi filename'
  User:	 a directory?
  UC:	 typing 'mkdir dirname' will create the directory 'dirname'
	 in the current directory
  User:	 How can I find out how full the disk is?
  UC:	 typing 'df' will tell you how full the disk is
  User:  How can I find out who is on the system?
  UC:	 typing 'who' will tell you who is connected to UNIX
  User:  How do I print a file on the line printer?
  UC:	 typing 'lpr filename' will print the file filename on the
	 line printer
  User:  What is a search path?
  UC:	 A search path is a list of directions in which the operating 
	 system searches for programs you have asked it to execute.

I would like to find out more about this program.  It would be great 
if this program turned out to be generally useful, however, I'd settle
for hearing more about it from the people at Berkeley.

I also have a reference that I haven't tracked down yet.  Here it is:

  Wilensky, R. (1982). Talking to UNIX in English: An Overview of UC.
  Proceedings of the Second Annual National Conference on Artificial
  Intelligence.  Pittsburgh.

-- 
John Sambrook                        Internet: john@nsr.bioeng.washington.edu
University of Washington RC-05           UUCP: uw-nsr!john
Seattle, Washington  98195               Dial: (206) 548-4386