FC01@sri-unix (06/26/82)
Date: 12 Jun 1982 0925-PDT Two comments: Isn't it nice to have an op system that can solve the 'I typed the wrong thing' problem in so many ways! I made a version of rm that didn't delete files, but only mv'd them to tmp. It was great, but I never used it. I think that in general unless you are willing to suffer the overhead of systems like interlisp, you will have to be responsible for your actions. On the other hand, many of the features of the DECsystem20 would be nice in UNIX where pathnames are so extensive. About this ^s^q giberish, H19 can undo ^s^q, every EMACS I've ever seen has a trivial way of reassigning keys so you can avoid ^s^q if you really want to, and the pneumonics of search and quote are very handy, especially for those who use multiple editors or only do search and quote on occasion. Indeed the conventions that use ^v for quote and ^f for find seem to me the sick ones. At any rate, terminals should be built for users, and users should not contort themselves for terminals. If you have a terminal that can't adapt to your style of usage, you should not change your usage, but rather change your terminal. After all, terminals now cost under 1000 dollars, whereas the aggrivation of a user at its use can present an ongoing cost in time and frustration worth much more. Fred -------