[TUHS] Unix stories, Stephen Bourne and IF-FI in C code

[Norman Wilson]

Doug McIlroy:

  There was some pushback which resulted in the strange compromise
  of if-fi, case-esac, do-done. Alas, the details have slipped from
  memory. Help, scj?

====

do-od would have required renaming the long-tenured od(1).

I remember a tale--possibly chat in the UNIX Room at one point in
the latter 1980s--that Steve tried and tried and tried to convince
Ken to rename od, in the name of symmetry and elegance.  Ken simply
said no, as many times as it took.  I don't remember who I heard this
from; anyone still in touch with Ken who can ask him?

Norman Wilson
Toronto ON