What (ITS utility)

What (typed as :what in the HACTRN prompt) was a small information utility available in the Incompatible Timesharing System. It could provide information about incoming email, bus schedule on the MIT campus, executable source files or answer the user in a humorous manner.

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Without arguments :what would print information about inbox status:

*:what
You don't seem to have any recent messages.

:KILL  E$J
*

With the argument bus it would print out information about the next few buses leaving from the MIT campus:

*:what bus
It is now 12:50
Bus 83 leaves Central Sq 13:10, 13:30, 13:45, 14:00, ...
Bus 83 leaves Ringworld/Alewife 13:00, 13:20, 13:40, 13:55, ...
:KILL  E$J
*

Asked about source for NAME, :what responded with paths to source files corresponding to NAME:

*:what source for what
UP:SYSENG;
  0   WHAT   201      3 +487    11/30/1987 17:33:23 (5/2/2015) KLH
  0   WHAT   204      3 +493    5/16/1988 19:13:03 (5/4/2015) KLH

*

Not knowing the answer, it would often resort to humor:

*:what is life
You tell me.

:KILL  E$J
*

Finally, :what displayed some amount of introspection:

*:what is this
It's an all purpose utility program, dummy!

:KILL  E$J
*:what are you
I am an omniscient utility program, idiot!

:KILL  E$J
*

What (ITS utility)

Implementation

Usage examples

See also

External links

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