_Jan 25, 2024
TIL tilde (~) as "home" in unix and web directories:

On Unix-like operating systems (including AIX, BSD, Linux and macOS), tilde normally indicates the current user's home directory. [...] This convention derives from the Lear-Siegler ADM-3A terminal in common use during the 1970s, which happened to have the tilde symbol and the word "Home" (for moving the cursor to the upper left) on the same key.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilde#Directories_and_URLs

pic: the ADM-3A
picture of a ADM-3A terminal, w…
Tilde - Wikipedia

Show threadrsalzJan 26, 2024
@shrik3 are you sure of that? I think the convention started with uucp which was version 7 Unix and only hardcopy terminals.
Show threadcliffordheath
@rsalz @shrik3 Unix v7 had a termcap database (directory) and ADM-3A was the baseline for any app claiming full-screen terminal support
Jan 26, 2024 at 10:44pmTusky
Show threadrsalzFeb 7, 2024
@cliffordheath I thought termcap was invented at Berkeley.
Show threadcliffordheathFeb 7, 2024
@rsalz you're probably right. My first exposure was in 1980 at Uni of Melbourne, and there was a lot of cross-pollination happening already. I'm not sure how much of that flowed in the direction of Bell Labs. kre was writing the Berkeley tty driver, and I was reading his discarded listings on fanfold. I never saw a Unix system without termcap though, I don't think
Show threadrsalzFeb 8, 2024
@cliffordheath that reading listings comment is great!
Show threadcliffordheathFeb 8, 2024
@rsalz kre used to work at night, watching the cricket in England, and be absent through the day when he might otherwise be coerced into helping lusers :). One listing had two circles in biro highlighting arguments reversed to a function. TG we have type-checking now, so we can catch such things before the kernel crashes!