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Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 07:00:02 -0700
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From: hohmuth@inf.tu-dresden.de (Michael Hohmuth)
Subject: Re: bin/746: `talk' forbids talking from write-protected terminal for no good reason
Reply-To: hohmuth@inf.tu-dresden.de (Michael Hohmuth)
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The following reply was made to PR bin/746; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: hohmuth@inf.tu-dresden.de (Michael Hohmuth)
To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
Cc: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: bin/746: `talk' forbids talking from write-protected terminal for no good reason
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 14:53:40 +0100 (MET)

 J Wunsch wrote:
 
 > As hohmuth@inf.tu-dresden.de wrote:
 > > 
 > > The `talk' program has a misfeature in that it cannot be used except
 > > from a terminal with messages on ("mesg y").  When used from a
 > > write-protected terminal (messages off, "mesg n"), it complains that
 > > ``The callee cannot write to this terminal, use "mesg y"''.
 > 
 > This has been discussed before with the conclusion that this feature
 > is believed to be okay.  For example, the callee migh want to respond
 > to the talk request with a short message via write(1) saying that he's
 > going to have the talk later, instead of actually invoking the talk
 > right now.
 
 I believe this is an issue of the user's policy, not of the system's.
 I don't understand why a program should intentionally be crippled in
 order to enforce a policy the user may not want.
 
 Wouldn't it be OK to just print a warning message but allow usage of
 the program anyway?
 
 Michael
 -- 
 Email: hohmuth@inf.tu-dresden.de
 WWW:   http://www.inf.tu-dresden.de/~mh1/