-=> GEO. wrote to JOE BARR <=-

 GE> It's got nothing to do with culture shock, I came from Apple ][ where
 GE> free software ruled to the PC where DOS limited us to 8.3 names.
 GE> Neither suffered from the geek overdose naming conventions on Unix.

Neither had powerful command shells, either, where you could string
together whole stacks of commands to get something done. "ls" vs.
"list"
may not be much difference when that's all you're typing, but when it's
something like:

 Eterm -T MultiMail --trans off -F 10x20 -g 80x35 -f black -b white
 --scrollbar off --menubar off -P /usr/share/wallpapers/Marble01.jpg -e mm
 -transparency y -backfill n -editor "xterm -fn 12x24 -e pico -b -t -r75"

(actual example from my ~/bin directory), then the extra letters start to
add up. :-) Actually that's not even a good example, since technically it's
only one command... it was just the longest thing I could find lying
around. But it's when commands are joined with pipes and such that things
start getting interesting.

This is fundamental to what used to be called the Unix Way: make one
(small) tool to do one (small) thing well; to do big things, chain the
smaller tools together. Contrast with "bloatware". ;-) Cryptic command 
names are just a side effect of this.

 GE> what the heck is libgfxtrans?

Beats me; I don't have it here. But going by the name, I'd guess it was a 
library for translating graphics (formats, probably).

... We can defeat gravity.  The problem is the paperwork involved.

--- MultiMail/Linux v0.44