ab3@pucc-h (Rich Kulawiec) (08/24/84)
GREP = Global Regular Expression, Print
--
---Rsk
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It's better to burn out, than to fade away...naiman@pegasus.UUCP (08/24/84)
>> Does anybody know the origin of the word grep?
I apologize for posting this question to this newsgroup.
I also would like to thank everyone who sent me the answer.
--
==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259
Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, hogpc, ...]!pegasus!naimangray@SU-ISL.ARPA (08/26/84)
From: "R. M. Gray" <gray@SU-ISL.ARPA> grep comes from the ed command g/regular-expression/p (see p. 18 of The Unix Programming Environment by Kernighan & Pike)
lcc.richard@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA (08/26/84)
From: Richard Mathews <lcc.richard@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA> Article-I.D.: pegasus.1641 Does anybody know the origin of the word grep? -- ==> Ephrayim J. Naiman @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6259 Paths: [ihnp4, allegra, hogpc, ...]!pegasus!naiman I believe that it comes from the 'ed' command: g/regular expression/p which executes the print command on every line on which the "regular expression" appears. Thus 'grep' could be said to be an acronym for "global regular expression print". Richard M. Mathews lcc!richard@ucla-cs
sarwate@uicsl.UUCP (08/27/84)
#R:pegasus:-164100:uicsl:11300001:000:259 uicsl!sarwate Aug 27 11:44:00 1984 grep stands for g/re/p which is an ed command to print all lines matching the thing within the /'s. re means regular expression in this context. Reference: B. W. Kernighan, "Advanced Editing on UNIX", p. 15, in UNIX Programmer's Manual, vol. 2A, Jan. 1979.
mark@ism780.UUCP (08/28/84)
#R:pegasus:-164100:ism780:14400014:000:136 ism780!mark Aug 27 09:35:00 1984 I believe that one of the documents that accompanied version 7 answers that question: Global Regular Expression Processor ---mark---
steve@ism780.UUCP (08/28/84)
#R:pegasus:-164100:ism780:14400015:000:94 ism780!steve Aug 27 09:48:00 1984 I believe that the name "grep" comes from the ed command: g/re/p (re = regular expression)
jim@ism780b.UUCP (08/28/84)
#R:pegasus:-164100:ism780b:28500015:000:99 ism780b!jim Aug 27 10:55:00 1984 The name grep comes from the ed command g/re/p (Global search for Regular Expression and Print).
gillies.pa@XEROX.ARPA (08/28/84)
You could have at least posted the response for all of us that were wondering about the origin of the word "grep". Sheeeeeeesh. Don Gillies
george@sysvis.UUCP (08/29/84)
#R:pegasus:-164100:sysvis:-1149663:37777777600:113 sysvis!george Aug 29 09:37:00 1984 <> Whatever happened to: "Generalized Recursive Examination Parser" ? George Robertson ..!trsvax!sysvis!george
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq) (08/30/84)
From here on the usenet side of Unix-wizards it's easy to say that 'unix
trivia' belongs in net.games.trivia. Unfortunately, life is a LOT more
complicated than that because of the different ways the newsgroups are
handled.
the ARPA people have the disadvantage that something posted here on usenet
to net.unix and net.unix-wizards will show up in their mailboxes twice,
once to INFO-UNIX, once to INFO-UNIX-WIZARDS. Usenet has the advantage that
the software will (should?) only show it once. When ARPA people post to
both, everyone sees it twice. And we also get to see all of those wonderful
messages about mailing lists that people forget to send to *-REQUEST. All
of this, is, of course, trivia in itself and completely beside the point.
What isn't beside the point is the question raised in all of this--
appropriateness of material on a given topic. This has been a subject of
growing controversy on the Usenet side as the volume of material increases.
There basic problem seems to be that there is no well known definition of
appropriate material. On any given subject we seem to be able to find at
least one person who will yell loudly that the material is bogus and
another will yell JUST as loudly that is isn't. I've noticed over the last
six months that we are starting to spend a lot more time yelling about
things and a lot less time discussing them. A lot of newsgroups are quickly
becoming useless because of the sheer volume in them and the fact that most
of that volume is basically useless material. The causes for that are many:
1) people who respond to things by following up to the group
instead of mailing. How many articles have you seen with the
definition of grep in it? Why weren't these mailed to the person
interested instead of plowing them through the net?
2) People who are new to the net asking questions that they don't
know the answer to, but touching on things that were discussed
before they got on the net.
3) people who are sloppy about their postings, putting things in
the wrong places, asking questions that don't belong on the net
(hom many places do you know of with a unix system that wouldn't
have ONE person who knows what GREP means?) and generally not
thinking about the consequences of their action.
the REAL question is: What can be done?
the real answer is, I don't know. When a mailing list gets large enough on
ARPA, someone takes over as moderator and does some cleanup to make it
tolerable again. This is a BIG advantage of ARPA over usenet. We've tried
in the past to experiment with moderators and every attempt has been yelled
down with screams of dictators and fascists. Usenet people will kill for
the freedom to post garbage, it seems, even if it eventually kills the net.
Because of the lack of coordinated control of the net, I doubt moderators
would work anyway because that assumes that all of the sites will set up
their software to work with moderators. We all know the success of getting
sites to do things like upgrade software and fix bugs, much less install
software to implement controvesial functions.
If we assume that tighter controls on the net are a hopeless wish, the only
other alternative we have is information. We need to teach people to use
the net properly. How? Good question. We've written and posted guides,
we've mailed comments and suggestions to transgressors, we've posted
suggested, screams, yells, and whimpers, and things keep getting worse. I
certainly don't know what will work anymore, nothing that has been tried
seems to.
Perhaps it is time to simply junk Usenet as a failed prototype and come up
with a better communication scheme. Perhaps things will miraculously fix
themselves. I doubt it, though. I've got lots of questions about things,
but no answers, and the future of Usenet as it stands now looks rather
bleak to me. Anyone else out there have some answers that will work?
--
From the depths of the Crystal Cavern: Chuq Von Rospach
{amd,decwrl,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
Dreams, dreams, enchanter! Gone with the harp's echo when the strings fall
mute; with the flame's shadow when the fire dies. Be still, and listen.avsdT:roberts@avsdS.UUCP (08/31/84)
GREP can be found in many information sources. One of
those is:
"A USERS GUIDE TO THE UNIX SYSTEM"
(by Rebecca Thomas & Jean Yates)
GREP, short for Globally find Regular Expressions and Print
G R E P
ron@BRL-TGR.ARPA (09/07/84)
From: Ron Natalie <ron@BRL-TGR.ARPA> Never believe anything Yates says. Them and Walter Zintz. -Ron