>If I wrote a page like this for every underlying concept in unix, I
>would fill up every hard drive I have. I don't mind answering 
>questions like this, because other people probably want to know too,
>and I can re-use this message later when it comes up again... but
>there are plenty of good Intro to Unix books available out there.

Yes I know. I am reading three of them right now. (Is that enough? <grin>)

The word 'terminal' (in the sense we are discussing at least) is not even 
in one of them.

Speaking of which, books at least, one of the above mentioned books was 
purchased this morning. While at the bookstore (largest selection of 
computer related books I know of in my area) I perused the shelves of 
Unix/Linux/bsd related books very carefully. Here is what I found:

Unix: many dozens
Linux: many more, perhaps over two hundred (Man those red hat guys are 
going to town, huh. What a racket!)
all flavors of bsd put together: ZERO

Yeah, yeah, I know; 'If you've got a book on Unix, you've got a book on 
bsd.' Try explaining that to Joe Public. 

David Kachel