pilgrim@daimi.aau.dk (Jakob G}rdsted) (05/21/91)
The recent discussion of * and #?, made me remember something that I did not understand, when I first heard of it: Why is "stdin/out" called * and not some threeletterthing with a colon at it's end??? I think myself, it's because it would be inconsistent, but is that why. Of course, I don't propose Commodore to forget * and use something else, but why isn't * a XXX: thing?0 -- From the notorious Jakob Gaardsted, Computer Science Department Bed og arbejd ! University of Aarhus, Jylland (!) (Pray and work!) AMIGA! pilgrim@daimi.aau.dk | I'd rather play Moria.
mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) (05/21/91)
In article <1991May21.133734.25340@daimi.aau.dk> pilgrim@daimi.aau.dk (Jakob G}rdsted) writes:
I think myself, it's because it would be inconsistent, but is
that why. Of course, I don't propose Commodore to forget * and use
something else, but why isn't * a XXX: thing?0
It's already been mentioned here, so I can say it:
Under 2.0, CONSOLE: (what's this fascination with three letters?) is
synonymous with *, and * is tagged as obsolete. My fingers ache just
thinking about it (hmm "assign *: console:"...).
I suspect that it was that way because that's the way it was.
<mike
--
[Our regularly scheduled .signature preempted.] Mike Meyer
The Amiga 1000: Let's build _the_ hackers machine. mwm@pa.dec.com
The Amiga 500: Let's build one as cheaply as possible! decwrl!mwm
The Amiga 2000: Let's build one inside an IBM PC!