Naive Users, Command Completion

[utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!mhtsa!eagle!ihnss!vax135!harpo!floyd!trb]

Just because UNIX has some problems that people complain about, that
does not mean that "... someone with no computer programming can be
quickly trained to use ... UNIX" is a false statement.  I think the
statement "... someone with no FOO [experience] can be quickly trained
to used BAR" has little effect on any argument about the virtues of
BAR (though its converse might).  (Someone with no car programming
(design?) experience can be quickly trained to use ... Datsun?  So what?)

As long as my two cents are already on the table...  
I often use filename expansion as a form of command completion.  For instance:
% cd /usr/sp*/uucpp*

It irritates me that I can't use filename expansion when I am
redirecting.  It would be nice (for me at least) if completion (a la
twenex, right before your eyes) worked for filenames.  Not for command
options at all.  Not a boon for the naive users but to weary fingered
hackers who would rather call a file by a long useful name.  I guess it
would be nice for naive users too, for instance:  % rm *<esc> would
list the files that were to be deleted.

Seems to me that it would be easy if we knew that all completions were
filenames.

	Andy Tannenbaum, Bell Labs Whippany