Re: Etymology of `visiting' files

[Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>]

In article <87lh06bizj.fsf@rudiments.goosenet.in>,
 Udyant Wig <udyant.wig@gmail.com> wrote:

> Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com> writes:
> > The term "visiting" does not show up in a 1978 guide to Emacs (but
> > maybe it was already in use):
> > https://web.archive.org/web/20110723033542/http://www.burlingtontelecom.net/
> > ~ashawley/gnu/emacs/doc/emacs-1978.html#Basic-File_002dHandling-Commands
> 
> Thanks for the link.  I was unaware of this one.
> 
> > It shows up in 1981, in the RMS paper on Emacs:
> > http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/emacs-paper.html
> 
> I had checked this paper and also the Emacs manual for TWENEX users
> (AIM-555).  Both mention `visiting' but include no rationale for the
> choice.  Perhaps the technical meaning (of `visiting') was sufficiently
> similar to regular English usage that it did not seem to need
> explanation.

I think it may also be a bit of a retronym. Emacs has two commands for 
opening files: C-x C-f and C-x C-v. They needed mnemonics that 
distinguished them, so the first is "Find" and the second is "Visit".

GNU Emacs has abandoned the mnemonic name of C-x C-v.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
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