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On 9/30/24 15:15, Henry Bent wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:CAEdTPBeK4HOjuiqJPtpneqrDj0CF3=5=jv5aOPjYPBisDkPmyg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">On Mon, 30 Sept 2024 at 14:08, Dan Cross <<a
href="mailto:crossd@gmail.com" moz-do-not-send="true"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">crossd@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:</div>
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This makes me wonder when the `apropos` command was
introduced; surely<br>
the name was also somewhat of an obscure joke ("what is
apropos of<br>
listing a directory?" is not exactly the phrase that springs<br>
immediately to mind when wondering how to list a directory).<br>
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<div>Looks like it was introduced in 2BSD, written by Bill
Joy, though the 4.4BSD manpage claims that it was introduced
in 3BSD. Neither the BSD source nor manpage are
particularly enlightening about the choice of name.<br>
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<br>
I was one of the Berkeley grad students in the office with Bill Joy
around this time. I think the name probably come from the "apropos"
command in Emacs. That command is mentioned here:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://worrydream.com/refs/Stallman_1979_-_EMACS,_The_Extensible,_Customizable,_Self-Documenting_Display_Editor.pdf">https://worrydream.com/refs/Stallman_1979_-_EMACS,_The_Extensible,_Customizable,_Self-Documenting_Display_Editor.pdf</a>,
which is dated June 1979, but the Emacs command existed before that
date. The Berkeley source code is dated 1979:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=2BSD/src/apropos.c">https://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=2BSD/src/apropos.c</a><br>
<br>
I had used Emacs at MIT as an undergraduate. Bill would sometimes
ask me, "how do they do that in Emacs", or ITS, and then riff on a
feature and put it into vi or whatever. Whether I suggested an
"apropos" Unix command or someone wanted something like that, or I
said, "sounds like 'apropos' in Emacs", I don't remember.<br>
<br>
Dan H<br>
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