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Date:      Wed, 19 Apr 2000 21:24:14 +0000 (GMT)
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com>
To:        Cy.Schubert@uumail.gov.bc.ca
Cc:        freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Shells V2
Message-ID:  <200004192124.OAA04275@usr09.primenet.com>
In-Reply-To: <200004160031.e3G0Vt302555@cwsys.cwsent.com> from "Cy Schubert - ITSD Open Systems Group" at Apr 15, 2000 05:31:26 PM

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> With commit of tcsh, I'd like to raise another question.  Are there any 
> plans to replace sh with bash?  Granted they're not 100% compatible, 
> though my only experience with bash vs sh incompatibility was over 6 
> years ago on a Linux system, I still think it might be a good idea to 
> replace sh with bash.



My opinion, which seems to be missing from the summaries, is that
importing tcsh over csh is a stupid thing.

It is stupid to do because of, among other incompatabilities, it
has "enhanced" variable substitution which will find its way into
csh scripts written by people who don't know any better.


The same argument is true of bash.  It claims that bash is a superset
of sh, and that it is OK to replace sh because of this.

It is stupid to do because of, among other incompatabilities, it
has "enhanced" variable substitution which will find its way into
sh scripts written by people who don't know any better.


[ ... Wait, is there an echo in here? ... ]



You all realize that this creeping-featurism based incompatability
is the same thing that fueled the "UNIX wars" of the 80's, and
resulted in their being no common ABI between UNIX implementations,
right?


I really don't give a damn if someone wants to write tcsh or bash
scripts, but they should at least have the human decency to put

	#!/usr/local/bin/tcsh

or

	#!/usr/local/bin/bash

to warn us of the possible use of non-standard features in their
scripts.



Failing to do this will lead to scripts not running across
platforms, with no indication of why not.  Quit being so damned
FreeBSD and Linux centric for a minute, will you?!?


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.




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