Margulies.Multics@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA@rochester.UUCP (Margulies.Multics@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA) (03/20/84)
From: "Benson I. Margulies" <Margulies@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA> The use of - on Multics is an attempt to satisfy a couple of design goals: 1) non-positionality The options (we call them control arguments) should be easily distinguished from the ordinary operands. Consider: delete foo bar >udd>m>bim>gruz c=d.q -force -query_each if we used =, it would be force=yes, and query=each, and then there would be two more file names that could not be easily manipulated. Also, consider: .... -user -me for a comamnd which usually gets -user Margulies.Multics What would that look like in = land? user=-me? how do you reserve values on the right side of the equal sign? 2) a burning desire not to resemble IBM JCL in any way, means, or fashion. By the way, Multics usually defines -no_foo as the opposite of -foo, but the Multics Consistent System has used -^foo with some success. --benson