Why "echo?" (origin)

[djr33]

Just out of curiosity, why does php (and now I've noticed batch files too) use "echo" as the command to output text.
It kinda makes sense, but certainly less than print, output, write or any other number of commands would.

[mwinter]

Just out of curiosity, why does php (and now I've noticed batch files too) use "echo" as the command to output text.

I don't know exactly, but I should think that it originates from "echo mode" in terminals. When data is sent to a server, the server "echoes" the data back to the terminal.

It kinda makes sense, but certainly less than print, output, write or any other number of commands would.

Agreed.

Mike

[Twey]

It makes sense when executing the script interactively, as the script will literally "echo" back the parameter(s) to the user.

[mwinter]

It makes sense when executing the script interactively, as the script will literally "echo" back the parameter(s) to the user.

That's quite a stretch. If what the user sees is only an echo, where's the original being sent?

Echo mode (which in batch files is also controlled by the echo command) is all about replaying the commands sent to the shell, so it's a sensible name. Another command name could easily have been used for displaying messages.

Mike

[Twey]

Hmm?

$ echo Some text
Some text

Original in red, echo in green.

[mwinter]

Hmm?

$ echo Some text
Some text

Original in red, echo in green.

That's not what I asked (and it was a rhetorical question, at that), nor is it echoing. Repeating the entire line, command included, would be, as that is what's being sent to the command interpreter.

Mike

[djr33]

I've spurred a debate!
//watches.

Yeah... I can see why it kinda makes sense, as I said before, but just not sure who would've thought of that as the name for it. But the echo mode thing makes sense (though, who named echo mode? )

[tech_support]

"Echo" is a city you know.

[djr33]

And a car. Perhaps programming just a marketing scam.
Next, we'll be using the honda command to connect to a database, and the ford command to duplicate a string....
I need sleep...