Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 18:56:12 +0200 From: Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@uunet.co.za> To: Doug Barton <DougB@gorean.org> Cc: arch@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: mergemaster: Change in description of envar handling Message-ID: <40523.962297772@axl.ops.uunet.co.za> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 29 Jun 2000 09:44:34 MST." <395B7CF2.AAFEAEB5@gorean.org>
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On Thu, 29 Jun 2000 09:44:34 MST, Doug Barton wrote: > No. I already conceded part of this point a while back when I > developed the .mergemasterrc mechanism so that people could specify > their own PATH (among other things), so there is already a way out of > this for those who are not interested in specifying the full path to > their PAGER. I have two things here that I'd like to mention. Firstly, this isn't about concessions. I'm happy for the utility to continue demanding that the administrator press 'l' every time he runs mergemaster (or stick a full path in his PAGER variable). I'm objecting to a lie: > > *** Your PAGER environment variable specifies 'less', but > > I cannot execute it. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Whether a lie or a partial truth, it's misleading and it confuses and, in my opinion, unhelpful. That's why I suggested a simple solution, which is to change the text so that no lie is told. (Sheesh, it's hard to stay away from arguing about good practice). :-) The second thing I want to mention is that building your own personal philosophy on good practice into the utility puts it at odds with the rest of the system. FreeBSD users never before had to use full pathnames for PAGER, nor for EDITOR. The dot files we install for users have always taught them a practice which was uniform and integral. Now one utility stands apart and causes a point of confusion -- not the only thing it does, mind you! :-) I'm suggesting that, instead of butting heads over what's right and what's not, we just fix what mergemaster says about your policy decision. Actually, I thought it was an incredibly politically clever approach. :-) Ciao, Sheldon. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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