Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!edson!news
From: jpenne@ee.ualberta.ca (Jerry Penner)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: How wrong is MS-DOS?
Message-ID: <1991Jan13.064946.29356@ee.ualberta.ca>
Date: 13 Jan 91 06:49:46 GMT
References: <1991Jan13.010437.7212@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu> <11261@lanl.gov>
Sender: news@ee.ualberta.ca
Organization: University of Alberta Electrical Engineering
Lines: 32

In article <11261@lanl.gov> jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
>From article <1991Jan13.010437.7212@maverick.ksu.ksu.edu>, by jxf@altair.cis.ksu.edu (Jerry Frain):
>> [...]
>> Why should I use ten different implementations of grep, when I can use the
>> very same grep utility whenever I need?
>
>Ask any mechanic whether he'd rather use the correct size socket wrench
>from a complete set or always have to use the monkey wrench.  Work is
>always more productive when the correct tool is used - not the one-size-
>fits-all tool.
>
>Besides, in this case I'm not recommending 'ten different implementations'.
>I'm recommending that the one implementation which is usually much more
>appropriate is a library routine and not a piped utility.
>
>J. Giles

This is not a good comparison.  The unix grep is more like a magic wrench 
that sizes to the correct nut, bolt autmatically.  You may well have picked
grep as the wrong example.  I say this because all of the MSDOS programs I
have used that do pattern matching never fully implement regular expressions.
Maybe because the authors only use MSDOS and don't use a grep that has more
powerful features.  Or maybe they didn't feel it was worth the time to code.
I don't know.  But I'd much rather have a real grep that might be a fair bit
slower if at least it works.  IT is the right tool because it DOES the job.
Like others have said.  The power is in the shell implementation because you
can use it quickly without writing and debugging a C program to do it.  You
get your task done in a couple of minutes or maybe even seconds rather than
half an hour or more.
-- 
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    Jerry Penner	alberta!bode!jpenne	Edmonton, Alberta, Canada