[unix-pc.general] /usr/bin/.!.

pjc@pcbox.UUCP (Paul J. Condie) (01/14/88)

Does anyone know what the program /usr/bin/.!. does or is this another
mistery of life.

dbw@mtunk.ATT.COM (d.b.wood) (01/16/88)

Go ahead and try it.

andys@shlepper.ATT.COM (a.b.sherman) (01/16/88)

In article <368@pcbox.UUCP>, pjc@pcbox.UUCP (Paul J. Condie) writes:
> Does anyone know what the program /usr/bin/.!. does or is this another
> mistery of life.


The program does a sort of neat marquee display with the names of
all of the people who worked on the system at AT&T and Convergent.
Try it.
-- 
Andy Sherman / AT&T Bell Laboratories (Medical Diagnostic Systems)
480 Red Hill Road / Middletown NJ 07748 / (201) 615-5708
UUCP: {ihnp4,allegra,akgua,cbosgd,mtune....}!shlepper!andys
INTERNET: andys@shlepper.ATT.COM

lenny@icus.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) (01/16/88)

In article <368@pcbox.UUCP> pjc@pcbox.UUCP (Paul J. Condie) writes:
|>
|>Does anyone know what the program /usr/bin/.!. does or is this another
|>mistery of life.

I asked the same question... here's the reply I got.


|>From: kevin@kosman.UUCP (Kevin O'Gorman)
|Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,comp.sys.att
|Subject: Re: UNIX PC wierd programs?!
|Keywords: programs, hidden, convergent
|Message-ID: <289@kosman.UUCP>
|Date: 24 Sep 87 22:37:22 GMT
|References: <53@quincy.UUCP>
|Reply-To: kevin@kosman.UUCP (Kevin O'Gorman)
|Organization: K.O.'s Manor - Vital Computer Systems, Oxnard, CA 93035

|In article <53@quincy.UUCP> lenny@quincy.UUCP (Lenny Tropiano) writes:
|>Recently there has been some discussion on "pcal" (CALENDAR 3.0) that 
|>was hidden in /etc/fixes directory.  Well I found I even more mysterious
|>oddity!
|>
|>/usr/bin/.!.   <-- note this is any executable.  Run it you will get a
|>laugh?  Now explain why it is here?  Why the list of people
|>/usr/installed/.list yet again another hidden file.  See what a:
|>
|>	$ find / -name .* -print
|>
|>Will do!!  
|
|Well, .!. (besides its graphic symbology) shows a list of the original Safari 4
|team members.  It was hacked in late in the original development cycle, and
|somehow got past the AT&T censors (if there are any, I don't know anything
|about AT&T Quality Control).  It's been just quietly sitting there since at
|least release 2.0.  
|
|.list is data for .!.
|
|It's kind of an in joke.  I only know about it because one of my very best
|friends is on the list.
|
|I generally change .list because of another in-joke, but you can safely just
|delete both files.  BTW you'll see what a crude hack .!. is from the state
|it leaves your console in.
|
|
|-- 
|
|Kevin O'Gorman ( kevin@kosman ) Vital Computer Systems, Oxnard, CA  93035

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fah@lznv.ATT.COM (F.A.HICINBOTHEM) (01/17/88)

.............. AHA, THE MYSTERY OF .!. SURFACES AGAIN! ................


Well .... I wrote it .... and crude hack though it may be, it had
the official sanction of all the AT&T brass (most of whom are no
longer around) and the Convergent folks (most of whom now work
elsewhere and have long since cashed in their stock options).

It is called .!. so that you can simply type !.!. from your user
agent screen.

The list of folks it presents are indeed anyone who had anything to 
do with the original machine (and I mean anyone).  

Those of you with little or no ego may feel free to delete it - I for
one will spend the little extra bit of space in glowing tribute to
those folks who made the box possible.

P.S. - you win the prize if you can figure out how the ORDER of the
names presented was chosen - they are not random, there is an algorithm!

Fred Hicinbothem ......lznv!fah

imd@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Ira M. Dworkin) (01/18/88)

In article pjc@pcbox.UUCP (Paul J. Condie) <368@pcbox.UUCP> writes:

> 
> Does anyone know what the program /usr/bin/.!. does or is this another
> mistery of life.

Nope, no mystery of life.  Try running it.  It creates 3 windows, listing the
people who worked on the 7300/3B1 from ATT-IS, Convergent, and Alloy
-- 
Ira Dworkin	 AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville IL		
312-979-5796	 {ihnp4,cbosgd}!ihlpg!imd