Abbreviations permit you to create a shorthand way of typing "command
lines."  You can use single letters and short terms to stand for just about
anything you want.  Once these abbreviations (normally called abbrevs) are
created, they are stored for you in a "profile segment" until you change them.
In order to create and use abbrevs, you must turn on the abbrev processor by
typing the abbrev "command."  To create an abbrev, you first type a code that
begins with a period.  Then you type the intended abbrev and follow that with
whatever you intend it to stand for.  For example:

     .a M my_segment

sets the letter M to stand for my_segment anytime M appears on a command line.
This can be tricky.  Sometime you might type M to stand for itself and find
instead that it is replaced by what it is defined to stand for.  One way to
correct this is by turning the abbrev processor off.  This is done by typing
'.q' alone on a command line.  Another way to deal with this is to use upper
case letters as abbrevs.  Almost everthing on the Multics command line is
typed in lower case, so upper case abbrevs ordinarily won't interfere.

     Try creating an abbrev.  Press the function key F2 to get to command
level.  Then type the abbrev command.  When the next "ready message" appears,
create an abbrev.  You can even create an abbrev for a command (e.g., L for
the list command).  Use that abbrev and see what happens.


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Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

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Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining
to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved