From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Udyant Wig Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Etymology of `visiting' files Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2016 11:07:36 +0530 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Message-ID: <87lh06bizj.fsf@rudiments.goosenet.in> References: <87y447oaaw.fsf@rudiments.goosenet.in> <87invbmkfg.fsf@lifelogs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1470721236 30486 195.159.176.226 (9 Aug 2016 05:40:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2016 05:40:36 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Aug 09 07:40:31 2016 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1bWzmB-0007nu-KE for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 09 Aug 2016 07:40:31 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33566 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1bWzm8-0007qw-3r for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 09 Aug 2016 01:40:28 -0400 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!goblin2!goblin1!goblin.stu.neva.ru!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 33 Original-Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="4cd1ddd3327d1d9a2c397ef86e063b73"; logging-data="26234"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19udq0zAh/h0J6s0nChyFC2" Cancel-Lock: sha1:XJ7xxQrjaROehiZCbRmHN6HsXXA= sha1:OWbXDM0c8lE5OXFaDnhIgQdvWYg= Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:218713 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "help-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:111084 Archived-At: Ted Zlatanov 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. > Either way, I think it predates modern CUA standards, which emerged in > the late 80's, and which AFAIK set down the File menu (with Quit and > Open items) consistently. IIRC, CUA came (long) after various Emacsen were written and in use; it was mostly an effort to standardize DOS applications. The Wikipedia article says as much and lists a number of IBM documents beginning 1987. > HTH > Ted It did. -- Udyant Wig