On Tue, 26 Aug 2025 10:10:11 -0600, Paul Gilmartin <paulgboul...@aim.com> wrote:
>> Ask yourself, why are unix commands so strange (e.g. testcmd -x >Most UNIX facilities support search for 2 (or more) different >characters, often by [list]. Really? The "-" simplifies parsing. Single characters simplify parsing. IBM never had this problem because TRT and TR existed in the original design. > "Doctor, it hurts when I uppercase the command." > "Don't do that." Again, IBM had the TR command from the beginning and uppercase is readable & consistent. Anyone remember back people started using mixed case edit that caused lowercase DSN on disk but upper in catalog needing SPZAP to rename the dataset? >Many mainframe conventions arose from an attemptto >accommodate programmer habits formed by the limitations >of the 026 (no longer marketed by IBM,AFAIK), IBM had typewriters before keypunches. The IBM 026 was a choice (not a limitation). >aggravated by the 3277 which, unforgivably, transmitted >minuscule while it displayed majuscule. 3277 keyboard was dual case keyboard. I don't remember using caps lock so I'm guessing it defaulted to uppercase. >Outgrow your 026 mindset. Think of 52 different characters, >not two typographic variants of 26 characters. It was not a mindset. It was a choice. Are you saying IBM built typewriters but couldn't design a fully functional keypunch? >But IBM could do better. It lacks common extensions such as: > find -iname > OptionL case-sensitive regex for DFSORt IBM made a choice that was in line with a world to uppercase. At least they didn't screw the pooch with commands.
