Unix Type-ahead problem

Rahul Dhesi dhesi at bsu-cs.bsu.edu
Sun May 14 05:58:28 AEST 1989


It's a question of whether you "Think VMS" or "Think UNIX".  If I use
VMS for a while, I get used to typing commands like

     cc x <cr>
     link x <cr>
     run x <cr>

quickly, and the commands are echoed as they are executed one by one.
Then when I move to UNIX, for a while I do the same and I find it
annoying that characters get echoed as I type them.  But soon I begin
to "Think UNIX" again, and I instead type

     cc x; a.out

or better still:

     cc x && a.out

You see, if you "Think UNIX", you use the semicolon to separate
multiple commands rather than newlines, and you learn to use && to
connect commands when suitable.  *Then*, when you move back to VMS,
it's annoying that you can't do this any more.

So it's all a question of your state of mind.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi at bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
UUCP:    ...!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi



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