Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 14:37:27 GMT From: Mark Valentine <mark@thuvia.demon.co.uk> To: Juli Mallett <jmallett@freebsd.org> Cc: Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>, standards@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why I am opposed to a Standards Ghetto Message-ID: <200210271437.g9REbRms035143@dotar.thuvia.org> In-Reply-To: <20021027060020.A12339@FreeBSD.org>
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> From: Juli Mallett <jmallett@freebsd.org>
> Date: Sun 27 Oct, 2002
> Subject: Re: Why I am opposed to a Standards Ghetto
> Does that help at all?
Thanks, that got through a bit better!
So, given any particular POSIX feature (for example) we wish to adopt
in FreeBSD I can see the following cases:
1) No conflict. Adopt the feature.
2) Conflict, but nobody uses the FreeBSD feature. Replace the FreeBSD
feature with the POSIX feature.
3) Conflict, but we'd really like to use the POSIX version sooner
rather than later, and the FreeBSD flavour is only lightly used.
Shove the old version in /usr/bsd (or /usr/compat/bin?) and
incorporate the POSIX feature in the standard version.
4) Conflict, and the FreeBSD behaviour is in widespread use. Implement
the POSIX feature in a new /usr/posix version.
Also, you outlined the possibility that for any given utility, different
POSIX features may come into different classes, so you could end up with
three versions of the utility.
I still favour doing the same for (3) as for (4), but marking the default
behaviour as (strongly?) deprecated, with the option of one day (when/if the
FreeBSD flavour really can be proven to have gone out of use), replacing the
default version with the POSIX version (optionally leaving a symlink in
/usr/posix).
Perhaps you could give a specific example which might show that this doesn't
suffice?
Cheers,
Mark.
--
Mark Valentine, Thuvia Labs <mark@thuvia.co.uk> <http://www.thuvia.co.uk>;
"Tigers will do ANYTHING for a tuna fish sandwich." Mark Valentine uses
"We're kind of stupid that way." *munch* *munch* and endorses FreeBSD
-- <http://www.calvinandhobbes.com>; <http://www.freebsd.org>;
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