Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 17:03:25 -0800 From: underway@comcast.net (Gary W. Swearingen) To: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A bit of trivia: what does usr stand for? Message-ID: <qz1xqz9e3m.xqz@mail.comcast.net> In-Reply-To: <3FE4D580.6050001@potentialtech.com> (Bill Moran's message of "Sat, 20 Dec 2003 18:04:32 -0500") References: <5.0.2.1.1.20031220224013.02cf25c0@popserver.sfu.ca> <3FE4D580.6050001@potentialtech.com>
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Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com> writes: > The urban myth is believeable, though, since it seems silly to abbreviate > "user" with "usr" ... I mean, you're only saving 1 letter. Most programmers back then didn't think it was at all silly. In addition to the already-mentioned teletype, some of us had to program on punch cards (eg, my college) and via 110 baud terminals (eg, my first job). Not only typing was slow; correcting typing errors with the primative "line editors" was even slower, and the less you had to type, the fewer errors you had to correct. Abbreviations were rampant, with "unnecessary" syllables and vowels being dropped whenever feasible. That "usr" might have been a victim of habit, or, more likely, the high frequency of typing it was considered.
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