28 Sep
2018
28 Sep
'18
12:08 p.m.
Noel Chiappa <jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu> comments on the use of "home
directory" on Thu, 27 Sep 2018 19:14:19 -0400 (EDT):
> I _did_ find "home directory" in the ITS
documentation; the oldest doc file I
> found it in was dated 5/25/79. If ITS was the source, not sure how it spread -
> maybe via EMACS?
I looked in my own TECO code (> 12K lines), and found "home directory"
in two files with internal date headers from 1983.
I scanned my archive of TOPS-20 emacs source code and found these
uses:
% grep -i 'home dire' *
babyl.info:operating system; this file resides in the user's "home
directory" and
conv.info:stands for the user's home directory. If neither file exists, the
emacs.info:Home Directory Your home directory is the one on which your mail and
emacs.info: may be the same as your home directory's name.
emacs.mss:@Index{Home Directory}@Index{User Name}
emacs.mss:it should be called @ITS{<home directory>;<user name> EVARS instead
of EMACS.}
emacs.mss:@Index{Home Directory}
emacs.mss:EMACS into the file @ITS[<home directory>;TS ESAVE](a)Twenex[ESAVE.EXE].
Binary file mkdump.info matches
teco.archiv:*) FS U HSNAMEnd FS U MAILllow you to get a user's home directory
teco.archiv:* FS HSNAME$ is the user's home directory, as a numeric sixbit word.
teco.archiv:On old versions of ITS that don't have home directories, it is the
teco.archiv:same as FS MSNAME$. The home directory is (presumably) where such things
teco.archiv: B) People whose home directory is a shared directory
tecord.info: If you @EJ a file TS FOO on your home directory, then FOO^K
tecord.info:FS HSNAME s the user's home directory. The home directory
tecord.ref:FS HSNAME user's home directory
tecord.ref:FS U HSNAME used to determine a user's home directory
Here are the file dates:
% grep -l -i 'home dire' * | xargs ls -log
-rw-r--r-- 1 51376 Jun 5 1981 babyl.info
-rw-r--r-- 1 81689 Oct 16 1981 conv.info
-rw-r--r-- 1 466772 Dec 28 1981 emacs.info
-rw-r--r-- 1 412673 Oct 16 1981 emacs.mss
-rw-r--r-- 1 12570 May 24 1982 mkdump.info
-rw-r--r-- 1 121865 Oct 16 1981 teco.archiv
-rw-r--r-- 1 225207 Oct 16 1981 tecord.info
-rw-r--r-- 1 16407 Dec 28 1981 tecord.ref
In another directory named emacs-162, there were 18 files containing
"home directory"; the oldest is dated 6-Mar-1980.
However, when I dug into teco.archiv, I found that the match occurred
in a change log block that begins
TECO 699:
RMS 10/14/77 Many changes
...
ITS only:
Thus, 14-Oct-1977 is the earliest date that I can find for "home
directory", credited to Richard Stallman.
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