Noel Chiappa &lt;jnc(a)mercury.lcs.mit.edu&gt; comments on the use of "home directory" on Thu, 27 Sep 2018 19:14:19 -0400 (EDT): 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe(a)math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe(a)acm.org beebe(a)computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------