Reply-To: "Douglas H. Quebbeman" From: "Douglas H. Quebbeman" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2002 11:07:24 -0400 Lines: 28 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4807.1700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4910.0300 NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.250.0.238 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.250.0.238 Message-ID: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> X-Trace: news.iglou.com 1020179246 204.250.0.238 (30 Apr 2002 11:07:26 -0400) X-Authenticated-User: dougq X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.250.0.238 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!uni-erlangen.de!news-nue1.dfn.de!news-lei1.dfn.de!newsfeed.freenet.de!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!news2.euro.net!uunet!ash.uu.net!news.iglou.com Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:106958 Ok, I made a brief and vain attempt to search for this subject on the web. Maybe when search engines are better at parsing a request than they are at crawling... Lots of software I've seen over the last 25 years includes some text file of instructions with a name chosen to grab=20 a person's attention and get them to read that document first. The event-horizon of these documents is not what I'm curious about, but rather, the particular choice of name... the name(s) I mention in the subject line are all self-referential, which=20 always elicits a giggle from me. I'm betting some document accompanying one of the PDP-8 operating systems or software packages will probably be the oldest.=20 But does anyone know? Has this subject been discussed before? --=20 -Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me = "Doug"] Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to = reply "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: Thu, 02 May 02 08:21:08 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 38 Message-ID: References: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> <3CD047D2.564A0D2C@trailing-edge.com> X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVacJMe4pGeyrEtnLL+AgbtqqVR+Dl6qCkkjgJ0b+xkGcbLitY25kkXb X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 2 May 2002 11:48:03 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!208-59-181-52 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107140 In article <3CD047D2.564A0D2C@trailing-edge.com>, Tim Shoppa wrote: >Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote: >> >> I'm betting some document accompanying one of the PDP-8 >> operating systems or software packages will probably be >> the oldest. > >The oldest I found in the PDP-10 archives is the UCI LISP >"READ.ME" from the 4th DECUS library tape, with a timestamp of >27-Mar-1975: > > http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/decuslib10-04/index.html Our standard didn't call them READ.MEs. We found that customers didn't read them first. We called them *.BWRs, short for beware. > >Unfortunately, many of the earlier mini OS's do not support a >[unique] timestamp in the tape and/or disk directory structure, >so it's hard to tell when a document was really last edited. Even if files did have a time/stamp, it still wouldn't tell you last edit. That's why we always put an edit history in the sources. Packaging procedures' date stamps would override any editing datestamp. You can tell publication releases by looking at the update history (but that's just for Software Notebooks). If you're looking at a stand-alone manual, you can get clues based on the printing histories and copyright dates. Everything else was stored in DEC's internal doc retrieval system. I suspect all of that stuff is long gone. /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### From: "John Coelho" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers References: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Lines: 16 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.3018.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.3018.1300 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 23:02:39 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.198.72.173 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: typhoon.maine.rr.com 1020294159 24.198.72.173 (Wed, 01 May 2002 19:02:39 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 19:02:39 EDT Organization: Road Runner - Portland, Maine Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!cyclone.maine.rr.com!typhoon.maine.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107166 >Lots of software I've seen over the last 25 years includes >some text file of instructions with a name chosen to grab >a person's attention and get them to read that document first. I'm not sure exactly when they started but IBM sent a document called an "Application Directory" that contained last minute info and a description of what was on the media - very close to a readme file. I remember them from the mid to late sixties and they were still used at least until 1992 (Probably until the present). The name isn't very catchy, though............ Interesting topic. John C ###### Message-ID: <3CD047D2.564A0D2C@trailing-edge.com> Date: Wed, 01 May 2002 19:53:54 -0400 From: Tim Shoppa Organization: Trailing Edge Technology X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.03Gold (X11; I; OpenVMS V7.2 AlphaServer 1200 5/533 4MB) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File References: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 17 NNTP-Posting-Host: 63.73.218.130 X-Trace: 1020297234 reader1.ash.ops.us.uu.net 5479 63.73.218.130 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!nntp.abs.net!uunet!dca.uu.net!ash.uu.net!spool0901.news.uu.net!spool0900.news.uu.net!reader0901.news.uu.net!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107151 Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote: > > I'm betting some document accompanying one of the PDP-8 > operating systems or software packages will probably be > the oldest. The oldest I found in the PDP-10 archives is the UCI LISP "READ.ME" from the 4th DECUS library tape, with a timestamp of 27-Mar-1975: http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/decuslib10-04/index.html Unfortunately, many of the earlier mini OS's do not support a [unique] timestamp in the tape and/or disk directory structure, so it's hard to tell when a document was really last edited. Tim. ###### From: Eric Sosman Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: Thu, 02 May 2002 12:55:45 -0400 Organization: Sun Microsystems Lines: 27 Message-ID: <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com> References: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: tardis.east.sun.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (X11; I; SunOS 5.8 sun4u) X-Accept-Language: en Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-out.spamkiller.net!propagator2-maxim!propagator-maxim!news-in.spamkiller.net!news.f.de.plusline.net!news-fra1.dfn.de!news0.de.colt.net!peernews2.colt.net!colt.net!newspeer.clara.net!news.clara.net!btnet-peer!btnet-peer0!btnet-feed5!btnet!carbon.eu.sun.com!new-usenet.uk.sun.com!eastnews1.East.Sun.COM!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107172 "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote: > > Ok, > > I made a brief and vain attempt to search for this subject on > the web. Maybe when search engines are better at parsing a > request than they are at crawling... > > Lots of software I've seen over the last 25 years includes > some text file of instructions with a name chosen to grab > a person's attention and get them to read that document first. > > The event-horizon of these documents is not what I'm curious > about, but rather, the particular choice of name... the name(s) > I mention in the subject line are all self-referential, which > always elicits a giggle from me. > > I'm betting some document accompanying one of the PDP-8 > operating systems or software packages will probably be > the oldest. > > But does anyone know? Has this subject been discussed before? Perhaps the idea originated with Lewis Carroll? -- Eric.Sosman@sun.com ###### Reply-To: "Douglas H. Quebbeman" From: "Douglas H. Quebbeman" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers References: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com> Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 17:02:37 -0400 Lines: 32 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4807.1700 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4910.0300 NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.250.0.238 X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.250.0.238 Message-ID: <3cd1a96e_2@news.iglou.com> X-Trace: news.iglou.com 1020373358 204.250.0.238 (2 May 2002 17:02:38 -0400) X-Authenticated-User: dougq X-Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.250.0.238 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-out.spamkiller.net!propagator2-maxim!propagator-maxim!news-in.spamkiller.net!sfo2-feed1.news.algx.net!dca6-feed2.news.algx.net!allegiance!feed2.news.rcn.net!rcn!wn14eed!worldnet.att.net!198.6.0.7!uunet!ash.uu.net!news.iglou.com Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107178 "Eric Sosman" wrote in message = news:3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com... > "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote: > >=20 > > Ok, > >=20 > > I made a brief and vain attempt to search for this subject on > > the web. Maybe when search engines are better at parsing a > > request than they are at crawling... > >=20 > > Lots of software I've seen over the last 25 years includes > > some text file of instructions with a name chosen to grab > > a person's attention and get them to read that document first. > >=20 > > The event-horizon of these documents is not what I'm curious > > about, but rather, the particular choice of name... the name(s) > > I mention in the subject line are all self-referential, which > > always elicits a giggle from me. > >=20 > > I'm betting some document accompanying one of the PDP-8 > > operating systems or software packages will probably be > > the oldest. > >=20 > > But does anyone know? Has this subject been discussed before? >=20 > Perhaps the idea originated with Lewis Carroll? Good chance that the author of the first so-named file was a Carroll fan... -dq ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: Fri, 03 May 02 08:27:51 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 44 Message-ID: References: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> <3CD047D2.564A0D2C@trailing-edge.com> <3cd1262c_3@news.iglou.com> X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVYgooAnoJc3EQeXVjwqEwOyhVyR2QmBrvnPbel7342+6mvX+8KmFOzL X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 May 2002 11:54:57 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-out.spamkiller.net!propagator2-maxim!propagator-maxim!news-in.spamkiller.net!news-xfer.newsread.com!netaxs.com!newsread.com!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!208-59-182-111 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107223 In article <3cd1262c_3@news.iglou.com>, "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote: >"Tim Shoppa" wrote in message news:3CD047D2.564A0D2C@trailing-edge.com... >> Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote: >> > >> > I'm betting some document accompanying one of the PDP-8 >> > operating systems or software packages will probably be >> > the oldest. >> >> The oldest I found in the PDP-10 archives is the UCI LISP >> "READ.ME" from the 4th DECUS library tape, with a timestamp of >> 27-Mar-1975: >> >> http://pdp-10.trailing-edge.com/decuslib10-04/index.html >> >> Unfortunately, many of the earlier mini OS's do not support a >> [unique] timestamp in the tape and/or disk directory structure, >> so it's hard to tell when a document was really last edited. > >True, but if it's part of a complete software release, there >may be ancilarry documents that contain dates int he text that >would help place them temporally... Probably not. One of the document specs (yes, we had specs on how to format documents of all flavors...manuals had one flavor, functional specs had another flavor, memoes had yet another...) did have us changing the date in the file to the date it was getting edited; but these were only functional specifications. I believe examples can be found in [emoticon gets up and looks at all of its -10 notebooks] shit...I can't find it. There was a section of a notebook, perhaps #14?, that had TOPS-10's functional specs. The first page had three lines, the name of file, the date, and I think the version number (which was really a document revision number). Never, AFAICR, did I ever type a file whose name was READ.ME or any variation. It was not unique enough. Now, they may have easily renamed a file to that; I never saw the final packaging back then. /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### From: "Charlie Gibbs" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: 03 May 02 13:30:13 -0800 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lines: 20 Message-ID: <642.888T656T8103989@sky.bus.com> References: <3cceb32e 2@news.iglou.com> <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com> <3cd1a96e 2@news.iglou.com> <8327b166.0205030423.277d1475@posting.google.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: p-610.newsdawg.com X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!newsfeed.it.ip-plus.net!news.it.ip-plus.net!news.it.colt.net!peernews2.colt.net!colt.net!newspump.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!nntp.newsfirst.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!pln-w!spln!dex!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!enews1 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107203 In article <8327b166.0205030423.277d1475@posting.google.com> tshoppa@wmata.com (Tim Shoppa) writes: >Moral: nobody may read your READ.ME. But everyone will type your >DONT_TYPE_ME. :-) That's like the old rule: If you want people to touch something, put a sign on it saying "WET PAINT". My favourite READ.ME file, at least from the standpoint of catching snoops, contains a single line saying "File not found". -- cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs) Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply. I don't read top-posted messages. If you want me to see your reply, appropriately trim the quoted text and put your reply below it. ###### From: jmfbahciv@aol.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: Sat, 04 May 02 08:52:42 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 28 Message-ID: References: <3cceb32e 2@news.iglou.com> <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com> <3cd1a96e 2@news.iglou.com> <8327b166.0205030423.277d1475@posting.google.com> <642.888T656T8103989@sky.bus.com> X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVaiLRKNavx8rOkQdd95iZLmBqZJX4BjqW+3PGdTOBuvpewcgi4a4JH2 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 4 May 2002 12:19:58 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-out.spamkiller.net!propagator2-maxim!propagator-maxim!news-in.spamkiller.net!xmission!logbridge.uoregon.edu!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!207-172-216-46 Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107233 In article <642.888T656T8103989@sky.bus.com>, "Charlie Gibbs" wrote: >In article <8327b166.0205030423.277d1475@posting.google.com> >tshoppa@wmata.com (Tim Shoppa) writes: > >>Moral: nobody may read your READ.ME. But everyone will type your >>DONT_TYPE_ME. > >:-) > >That's like the old rule: If you want people to touch something, >put a sign on it saying "WET PAINT". > >My favourite READ.ME file, at least from the standpoint of >catching snoops, contains a single line saying "File not found". > I got bit by that once or twice. That can be caused by a wayward finger typing a command to PIP and a combination of other happenstances. I can't remember the details of how I got myself in that jam, but it took me the longest damned time to figure out the file was really there and all it was seeing was its contents. Bless TW for his SET WATCH FILE implementation. /BAH Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail. ###### From: tshoppa@wmata.com (Tim Shoppa) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: 3 May 2002 05:23:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Lines: 29 Message-ID: <8327b166.0205030423.277d1475@posting.google.com> References: <3cceb32e 2@news.iglou.com> <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com> <3cd1a96e 2@news.iglou.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 170.121.15.5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: posting.google.com 1020428625 12967 127.0.0.1 (3 May 2002 12:23:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 3 May 2002 12:23:45 GMT Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-out.spamkiller.net!propagator2-maxim!propagator-maxim!news-in.spamkiller.net!tethys.csu.net!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!newsfeed.stanford.edu!postnews1.google.com!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107267 "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote in message news:<3cd1a96e 2@news.iglou.com>... > "Eric Sosman" wrote in message > news:3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com... > > Perhaps the idea originated with Lewis Carroll? > > Good chance that the author of the first so-named file > was a Carroll fan... Probably unrelated, but worth it nonetheless: I was setting up a networked laserprinter, but for some reason the standard tools didn't always flush the last page from the printer. So I modified the print queue so each job had 60000 "nonprintable" characters appended to the end, enough to always ensure a flush. But what to choose for the "nonprintable" characters? ASCII NUL's didn't work, they were already being stripped out by some other layer of the printing tools. Ahah - ASCII BEL's didn't get stripped, and they had no apparent side-effects on the laserprinter. So I made a file with 60000 BEL's and named it "DONT_TYPE_ME.DAT". Do some more tests, everything looks good, so I changed the MOTD so that everyone would know about the availability of the new printer. Five minutes later, from down the hall, I hear a stream of continuous beeps... A cow orker had taken a peek at my quick hack :-). Moral: nobody may read your READ.ME. But everyone will type your DONT_TYPE_ME. Tim. ###### Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Newsreader: knews 1.0b.1 References: <3cceb32e 2@news.iglou.com> <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com> <3cd1a96e 2@news.iglou.com> <8327b166.0205030423.277d1475@posting.google.com> <642.888T656T8103989@sky.bus.com> From: dg@pearl.tao.co.uk (David Given) Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: Lines: 18 Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 12:05:00 +0100 NNTP-Posting-Host: 62.255.240.131 X-Complaints-To: abuse@ntlworld.com X-Trace: news6-win.server.ntlworld.com 1020835718 62.255.240.131 (Wed, 08 May 2002 06:28:38 BST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 08 May 2002 06:28:38 BST Organization: ntl Business News Service Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-out.spamkiller.net!propagator2-maxim!propagator-maxim!news-in.spamkiller.net!xmission!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news.netcologne.de!newsfeed01.sul.t-online.de!t-online.de!newspeer1-gui.server.ntli.net!ntli.net!news6-win.server.ntlworld.com.POSTED!172.16.100.88!nobody Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107381 In article <642.888T656T8103989@sky.bus.com>, "Charlie Gibbs" writes: [...] > That's like the old rule: If you want people to touch something, > put a sign on it saying "WET PAINT". Mmf. Line up ten people along a rope and shout 'pull'. Five of them will push and two will say, 'What?' --- Terry Pratchett (approximately) -- +- David Given --McQ-+ "For is it not written, wheresoever two or three are | dg@cowlark.com | gathered together, yea they will perform the Parrot | (dg@tao-group.com) | Sketch?" --- _Not The 9 o'Clock News_ +- www.cowlark.com --+ ###### From: Tom Gough Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Earliest READ.ME./README/README.1ST File Date: 12 May 2002 20:04:39 GMT Lines: 34 Message-ID: References: <3cceb32e_2@news.iglou.com> <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: modem-2272.snake.dialup.pol.co.uk X-Trace: newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk 1021233879 13738 62.137.120.224 (12 May 2002 20:04:39 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: 12 May 2002 20:04:39 GMT X-Complaints-To: abuse@theplanet.net User-Agent: slrn/0.9.7.4 (Linux) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news.imp.ch!news.imp.ch!fr.clara.net!heighliner.fr.clara.net!diablo.netcom.net.uk!netcom.net.uk!diablo.theplanet.net!news.theplanet.net!not-for-mail Xref: chonsp.franklin.ch alt.folklore.computers:107534 In article <3CD16F91.87881294@sun.com>, Eric Sosman wrote: > "Douglas H. Quebbeman" wrote: >> >> Ok, >> >> I made a brief and vain attempt to search for this subject on >> the web. Maybe when search engines are better at parsing a >> request than they are at crawling... >> >> Lots of software I've seen over the last 25 years includes >> some text file of instructions with a name chosen to grab >> a person's attention and get them to read that document first. >> >> The event-horizon of these documents is not what I'm curious >> about, but rather, the particular choice of name... the name(s) >> I mention in the subject line are all self-referential, which >> always elicits a giggle from me. >> >> I'm betting some document accompanying one of the PDP-8 >> operating systems or software packages will probably be >> the oldest. >> >> But does anyone know? Has this subject been discussed before? > > Perhaps the idea originated with Lewis Carroll? > That had always been my understanding. However, it occurs to me that if you have written a file containing important information for people to read, is there a better filename than "README" (except, maybe, "PRIVATE-DO-NOT-READ"!) But, given the limitations on filename length, "README" seems to make most sense -- http://www.guild.bham.ac.uk/chess-club