Jim I had all of this in draft before you confessed. Nevertheless, there is many a true word spoken in jest so I'll let it all stand - although there's a supposition that has become a bit pointless ...
- Thank you for your emollient contribution. I hope you don't mind the resetting of the Subject since this subdiscussion has no connection with "list etiquette. > Perhaps some form of hybrid acronym like zUSS could serve as being both highly compact and descriptive, while avoiding potential confusion with prior art. However, applying Occam's razor, I see no need to invent yet another abbreviation when as John McKown indicated a perfectly satisfactory one already exists which offers no room for misunderstanding, namely z/OS UNIX - although I think I've seen the contraction to zUNIX suggested - which weighs in as only one letter more than your suggestion. Having noted John McKown's reiteration that z/OS UNIX is the preferred abbreviation for z/OS UNIX System Services - dropping the words which really add almost nothing to an understanding of what the component is all about, I realised that actually no such alternative exists for VTAM's Unformatted System Services. That in itself should clarify the minds of the fair-minded among us - which I fear, from the evidence of a number of skirmishes around this topic, is not an universal set. > Furthermore, it could establish a precedent for selecting acronyms for describing similar interface layers on other platforms. Some might even consider such acronyms to be apropos, especially with regard to a widely user operating system on x86. I'm sure you have the kernel - a play on words detected only after composition! - of a fine idea here but it may be you have assumed some similarity between USS as used in the VTAM context since the mid-1970s and USS as misused in the context of the official UNIX in the "MVS" environment, emerging in 1993, which eventually came to be known as z/OS UNIX System Services sometime later. The only commonality between the two is the use of the general purpose words "system" and "services". Unfortunately "Unformatted" has the same initial letter as "unified" or "united" which may - the Wikipedia article only hints [1] - be the source of the initial letter of "Unics" which became "Unix" - or probably incorrectly - there I go again! - "UNIX" incorrect because it is not a short form for four words with initial letters U, N, I and X. It is possible however - as might happen in a thread Subject line - to refer to an USS *command* which could be confused with the commands of the UNIX environment and to refer to an USS *message* which could be confused with some reference to output messages pertaining to the UNIX environment. It actually happened eighteen months ago in a thread I was following because it appeared likely to involve the Communications Server (CS), IP and/or SNA (VTAM), components with the Subject line "Mainframe hacking".[2] An "uss screen" was mentioned which was a perfectly correct reference to VTAM's USS but was taken as a reference to z/OS UNIX System Services which mistake, because from other posts I know the poor deluded contributor is quite familiar with CS, can only have been made because of the "hijack" effect Ted MacNeil is promoting. It's that sort of possibility that causes my blood to switch from Fahrenheit to Centigrade. Incidentally, it was your colleague John Eells who provided the post I seem to have to quote frequently to the nay-sayers which explained - and confirmed - that the letters "USS" should have nothing whatsoever at all in this world to do with z/OS UNIX System Services. He did however bemoan that trying to maintain standards such as this was akin to "herding cats"! Chris Mason [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix <quote> In the 1970s Brian Kernighan coined the project name Unics as a play on Multics, (Multiplexing Information and Computer Services). Unics could eventually support multiple simultaneous users, and it was renamed Unix. </quote> [2] Likely to attract folk directly or indirectly related to commercial enterprises offering advice of dubious validity laced with FUD directed at SNA products and architecture. On Sun, 13 Feb 2011 02:29:43 -0500, Jim Mulder <[email protected]> wrote: > Perhaps some form of hybrid acronym like zUSS >could serve as being both highly compact and descriptive, while >avoiding potential confusion with prior art. > > Furthermore, it could establish a precedent for selecting acronyms >for describing similar interface layers on other platforms. Some might >even consider such acronyms to be apropos, especially with regard >to a widely user operating system on x86. > >"That was the last arrow in my quiver of whimsy." > -Amy Farrah Fowler > >Jim Mulder z/OS System Test IBM Corp. Poughkeepsie, NY ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
