[TUHS] SPARC is CRAPS spelled backwards.

Nelson H. F. Beebe beebe at math.utah.edu
Fri Sep 28 22:08:21 AEST 2018


Noel Chiappa <jnc at 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]@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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