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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!cires!nbires!ut-ngp!utastro!nather
From: nather@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: UNIX: INHUMAN FACTORS
Message-ID: <452@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Jul-83 11:14:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.452
Posted: Fri Jul  8 11:14:25 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 9-Jul-83 19:05:10 EDT
References: ittvax.825 csu-cs.2314
Lines: 13

It is clearly true that Un*x has "jest growed" like Topsy, but
*very* early versions had an editor called "ed" and a shell by Bourne.
I am continually embarassed when I explain to new Un*x users that
"ed" (and its descendents, "ex" and "vi") use the ASCII character "."
to mean "match any 1 character" while the shell (Bourne or csh) uses
the ASCII character "?" for the same thing and "." for something else
entirely.

Surely there is some history here.  Anyone know it?  How about it,
Surely?

                                   Ed Nather
                              ...hao!kpno!utastro