Actually, NetBSD *does* ship with *3* shells that support command-line
history.  Try any of sh, csh, or ksh.  They also support aliases and
scripts, providing other ways to reduce one's typing.  (^&

But, also bear in mind that, e.g., the tlp (Tulip chipset & clones) driver
is in a source file with a tlp prefix, and a lot of internal
structures/functions have a tlp_ prefix.  (Actually, the file I was
looking at had tlp_pci_ as the file- and structure-prefix.)

Perhaps someone who knows more about the way that the system works from
source can say how functionally necessary this is.  But certainly, it
makes it easy to *find* the files and structures.  So to change the names
would implicitly suggest/require changing the files.  And from there, you
have left the realm of what a history-buffer in your shell can help you
with.  If developers use #define macros to type ``tlp'' in the source,
that would defeat the value of matching names.  If they have to type Tulip
everywhere, it would make it appreciably harder to read and write sources.


If your sole concern is to identify the hardware readily, I suggest
perusing dmesg (or /var/log/messages).  If the information there is still
too terse, turn up the verbosity of your kernel.  Of course, it still may
not be too helpful.  The kernel can't read the stickers on the card...


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu