tool Peripheral Interchange Program.
(derived from a utility on the
PDP-6) that was used for file
copying (and in OS/8 and RT-11 for just about every other file
operation you might want to do). It is said that when the
program was written, during the development of the PDP-6 in
1963, it was called ATLATL ("Anything, Lord, to Anything,
Lord"; this played on the Nahuatl word "atlatl" for a
spear-thrower, with connotations of utility and primitivity
that were no doubt quite intentional).
(1995-03-28)