On

[utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!cosell at BBN-UNIX]

From: Bernie Cosell <cosell at BBN-UNIX>
I have been trying hard (successfully so far) to stay out of this, but there
has now been enough misguided commentary on the matter of command names that I
can't hold out any longer.....

The folk who think that making `rm' simply become `del' has ANY bearing on the
real fundamental problem have totally missed the point of the criticism.
Further, such stroke-of-the-magic-wand isn't-UNIX-wonderful expedients
only exacerbate the whole situation, rather than helping it.

The problem is not any particular name (although there are many really
losing names, `cat' among them - `grep' ain't so good either).  The
troubles span such problems as the unstructured laissez-faire chaos of
naming/argument/switch/default conventions (or, more properly,
non-conventions) coupled with a total disdain (for the most part) by
the various applications programmers (since, to be sure, they get little
or no help or guidance from the system) as to the confusion the chaos makes
for users and the damage that ensues when users make otherwise-innocent
(and simple) errors (and this extends to the kernel; for example, doing
`glob' at shell level instead of in the kernel and the lack of version
numbers condemn users to an irregular, disaster-prone environment). 

The criticisms of particular tiny pieces of UNIX that (repeatedly) get
made are NOT intended as `fix these if you can' challenges, but rather
as illustrations -- instances of the general, overall problems.  If you
don't understand what the real, fundamental, underlying problems are,
then your fixes and suggestions (quickies or otherwise) are almost
certainly going to be off the mark.  If you believe that UNIX's problems
are bad public relations and a few easily-patched-around minor glitches,
then you're missing the point. 

    /Bernie