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From: Robert Thorpe <rt@robertthorpeconsulting.com>
To: Udyant Wig <udyant@rudiments.goosenet.in>
Cc: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: Re: Etymology of `visiting' files
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2016 20:36:32 +0100	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87k2fr3ven.fsf@robertthorpeconsulting.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <87y447oaaw.fsf@rudiments.goosenet.in> (message from Udyant Wig on Mon, 08 Aug 2016 15:24:31 +0530)

Udyant Wig <udyant@rudiments.goosenet.in> writes:

> What motivated the choice of the verb `visiting'?
>
> From reading some of the relevant section in the Emacs and Elisp
> manuals, I understand the process the verb names.  However, I wanted to
> find some reasoning or discussion about the choice of verb; my own
> expectation would have been something like `edit' or `load', but that
> would be looking through the lens provided by recent editing systems.

I expect it's mnemonic.  On early versions of Emacs before GNU Emacs
using multiple buffers was considered advanced.  Emacs opened in a
"Main" buffer.  The keybinding C-x C-v ("visit-file") visited a file in
that buffer.  The keybinding C-x C-f ("find-file") visited a file in a
new buffer.

See pages 71 & 83 of this document from 1981.

http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/mit_emacs_170_teco_1220/01/info/emacs.guide.html
BR,
Robert Thorpe



  parent reply	other threads:[~2016-08-08 19:36 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 12+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2016-08-08  9:54 Etymology of `visiting' files Udyant Wig
2016-08-08 10:53 ` Pascal J. Bourguignon
2016-08-08 12:36   ` Yuri Khan
2016-08-08 12:37   ` Narendra Joshi
2016-08-08 12:48   ` Florian v. Savigny
2016-08-09  5:17   ` Udyant Wig
2016-08-08 13:58 ` Ted Zlatanov
2016-08-09  5:37   ` Udyant Wig
2016-08-09 15:37     ` Barry Margolin
2016-08-10  9:24       ` Etymology of `visiting' files, and for that matter, of `finding' them Florian v. Savigny
2016-08-08 19:36 ` Robert Thorpe [this message]
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2016-08-09  6:42 Etymology of `visiting' files Udyant Wig

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