From owner-freebsd-current Tue Sep 24 16: 4:17 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8243E37B401 for ; Tue, 24 Sep 2002 16:04:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from thuvia.demon.co.uk (thuvia.demon.co.uk [193.237.34.248]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9DCB743E65 for ; Tue, 24 Sep 2002 16:04:14 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk) Received: from dotar.thuvia.org (dotar.thuvia.org [10.0.0.4]) by phaidor.thuvia.org (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g8ON4DcF031919; Wed, 25 Sep 2002 00:04:13 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk) Received: from dotar.thuvia.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by dotar.thuvia.org (8.12.5/8.12.5) with ESMTP id g8ON4CLU081785; Wed, 25 Sep 2002 00:04:12 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from mark@dotar.thuvia.org) Received: (from mark@localhost) by dotar.thuvia.org (8.12.5/8.12.5/Submit) id g8ON4C2Y081784; Wed, 25 Sep 2002 00:04:12 +0100 (BST) Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 00:04:12 +0100 (BST) From: Mark Valentine Message-Id: <200209242304.g8ON4C2Y081784@dotar.thuvia.org> In-Reply-To: X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.6 beta(5) 10/07/98) To: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman), Bill Fenner Subject: Re: Who broke sort(1) ? Cc: current@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) > Date: Tue 24 Sep, 2002 > Subject: Re: Who broke sort(1) ? > I don't object to maintaining backwards compatibility for a few more > releases (even if the application writers are the ones at fault), Umm, their "fault" may simply have been that they wrote the code back when it was correct and/or the only way... The author may no longer even be around to maintain the product, even if the product still exists. That's what backwards compatibility is about. I'm pretty sure Solaris will continue to support +POS in /usr/bin/sort for years to come, even though it _is_ marked as (obsolete) in the manual page. Personally, I've never had reason to unwire it from my fingers. I have less qualms about removing backward compatibility for behaviour that was only ever accidental. Cheers, Mark. -- Mark Valentine, Thuvia Labs "Tigers will do ANYTHING for a tuna fish sandwich." Mark Valentine uses "We're kind of stupid that way." *munch* *munch* and endorses FreeBSD -- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message