[COFF] On Bloat and the Idea of Small Specialized Tools

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Nevin,

> the name "pr" doesn't really help me understand what it is for

As typical of the early commands, it's readily mnemonic.

    PR(I)                      3/20/74                       PR(I)

    NAME
        pr - print file

    SYNOPSIS
        pr [-h header] [-n] [+n] [-wn] [-ln] [-t] [name...]

> How does one discover it?

Back then, by reading through the permuted index, turning the pages of
the printed manual, word of mouth...  By making effort to learn the
profession's tools.

> If I have a command and I want it to do something slightly different,
> the first place I look is to see if there is a command line option for
> that.  I know how to discover that (either --help or the man pages).

And a fine man page's SEE ALSO may help learn of new commands.

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.