knudsen@ihnss.UUCP (11/29/83)
A very simple scheme to have long names and short is this: the user need type only as many initial letters of the command as needed to disambiguate it from any others in the system's vocabulary. This is very easy to implement, and automatically grows as new words are added. A disadvantage is that adding new words may require users to type more letters than before, but, assuming they know the original full name, it is easy to try adding more chars until it works. Another slight disadvantage is that the first N letters of something may not be the "ideal" mnemonic, especially when there are groups of commands all starting with the same 3-4 letters. Nevertheless, I used a signal- processor debugging language for several years based on this scheme, and feel that it works great. Of course you can still have synonyms (multiple words for the same command). An interesting exercise: What would the commands of your favorite OS, etc., be under this scheme? mike k
Pucc-H:aeq@CS-Mordred.UUCP (12/01/83)
Curious that the idea of having one type in just the initial letters of commands until the system recognized them uniquely and completed them has been around since the mid-1960's or so.... The CDC 6000 series operator's console driver program, DSD (Dynamic System Display), has done that from time immemorial. -- Jeff Sargent/...pur-ee!pucc-h:aeq
scs@foxvax1.UUCP (S.C. Schwarm ) (12/01/83)
A system I used for short aliases was:
1) the first letter of the word had to be the first letter of the long
name.
2) after that any sequence of letters in the order that they occur in the
name.
example:
If the words STOP and START are the only commands that start with "S" then
the STOP command could be entered as:
STOP,STP,SO,SP
but not:
ST
If the entry was ambiguous, the system would list the choices.
This system had a very dynamic name space and we wanted to use Looong names.
I got the idea from a SIGPLAN article of about 5 years ago. Sorry I don't
remember the reference.
Steve Schwarm
genrad!wjh12!foxvax1!scs