-=> Neil Heller wrote to William McBrine <=-

 NH> One question, though.  Is there any presumed extension (like "EXE",
 NH> "COM", etc.) that's presumed and doesn't have to be typed when
 NH> executing the program?

Absolutely not. As Winston already mentioned, executables in Unix are
indicated by the executable bit(s) being set on the file (the "x"
in "rwx"  
you see from ls -l), and by nothing else. The DOS "file extension" system
is IMHO a kludge, and the sooner you unlearn it, the better. :-)

 NH> If not, need the full filename be typed at the command line every time 
 NH> when launching an app?

That would seem to follow logically from a "no" answer to the first
question. No? Of course, there are sometimes alternatives to typing
everything out: aliases, tab completion, etc. But I'm not really sure what
you're getting at here. If your filename is too much to type, just shorten
it.

BTW, if you're using Linux (or Unix), you're already launching apps that
way all the time. Do a listing of /bin or /usr/bin and see the filenames
there -- they're also commands. Even "ls" is an external command, /bin/ls.
(Try "which" to find out just where in the path a command is;
e.g., "which
gcc".)

... Predestination was doomed from the beginning.
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