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From: rbj@arpa.icst-cmr (Root Boy Jim)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: ksh incompatabilities with sh?
Message-ID: <8806152109.AA03190@cmr.icst.nbs.gov>
Date: 15 Jun 88 21:09:54 GMT
Sender: unix-wizards-request@uk.ac.ucl.cs.nss
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To: lvc@edu.ohio-state.cis.tut
Cc: unix-wizards@mil.brl.sem

? From: "Lawrence V. Cipriani" <lvc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
? 
? In article <16147@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@ICST-CMR.ARPA (Root Boy Jim) writes:
? ?? From: "Lawrence V. Cipriani" <lvc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>
? 	...
? ?? Many of our customers still use ^ for pipes, that's what they got used
? ?? to.  They have been using various versions of UNIX for at least 12 years.
? ?? Old habits die hard as the saying goes.
? ?What I want to know is how they got used to it. Hasn't `|' *always* been
? ?the symbol for a pipe? When was `^' introduced? A history lesson please!
? 
? Before the Bourne shell there was the Mashey shell.  It supported ^ for
? the pipe symbol not |.  This was a very primitive shell. A lot of its
? functionality was in separate programs due to limited memory size.
? For example wild card were expanded in a separate process, yuck.
? When the Bourne shell was written it inherited the ^, not sure why
? the change occurred.  Maybe it wasn't universally available, or perhaps
? it was just easier to type on Bourne's terminal :-).

OK. I will grant you that `^' preceded '|'. But why do `many of (y)our
customers still use ^ for pipes'? The original CACM paper, which I
believe appeared in 74, predated most people's exposure to UNIX, and
it used the symbol '|' for piping. So why would anyone have used `^'?

I can see people at TPC using `^' out of habit, but customers?

As far as ease of typing goes, old bit-pairing terminals, such as the
adm-3a (with arrows on the hjkl keys) and the Datamedia 152[01] did
have `^' as an unshifted key, while `|' was shifted. Might explain it.

? Larry Cipriani, AT&T Network Systems and Ohio State University
? Domain: lvc@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu
? Path: ...!cbosgd!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!lvc (strange but true)

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	<rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
	National Bureau of Standards
	Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688
	The opinions expressed are solely my own
	and do not reflect NBS policy or agreement
	My name is in /usr/dict/words. Is yours?