Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!ucla-cs!ucla-seas!turing!plinio
From: plinio@turing.seas.ucla.edu (Plinio Barbeito)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: standard practices
Message-ID: <2246@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 22 Mar 91 03:50:15 GMT
References: <1991Mar20.204257.26740@convex.com> <2231@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> <1991Mar21.071029.2289@convex.com>
Sender: news@SEAS.UCLA.EDU
Organization: SEASnet, University of California, Los Angeles
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In article <1991Mar21.071029.2289@convex.com> rosenkra@convex.com (William Rosencranz) writes:
>In article <2231@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> plinio@crowe.seas.ucla.edu (Plinio Barbeito) writes:
>>In article <1991Mar20.204257.26740@convex.com> rosenkra@convex.com (William Rosencranz) writes:
>>>	-debug		to turn on internal debugging, if any
>>
>>In a beta release of something, but for a bugless program?
>
>i never saw one :-). what is a "bugless program"?

(I knew I shouldn't have said bugless) Programs that do only one
thing.  Therefore, if they don't work (they don't do that one thing
how you want), you throw them away.  An example of this kind of
program: a utility that prints the date.  Typing "date -debug" is not
something most people would be inclined to do.

>not all commands can be typed without args. stdin is usually inferred
>as source of input.
True, but as you probably know, there is also the '-' convention. 
Type 'command', and you get help.  Type 'command - < file' and you
are sending that file to the stdin.  The trouble with this is that the 
original convention (a la 'cat') of 'command < file' is more elegant
in its simplicity.

>mind. the alternative is...what IS the alternative? proofread 100k of
>data looking for a typo? i HOPE not...
In a release, the debugging is taken out (or not compiled in), that
doesn't mean that the programmer couldn't have his own separate
version, for debugging purposes.  I didn't mean to imply that 
programmers wouldn't be deprived of their debugging facilities (if 
that is what you are implying that I implied).  

>>plin
>>--
>>----- ---- --- -- ------ ---- --- -- - -  -  plinio@seas.ucla.edu 
>>I don't think, I'm crazy.
>
>no, you're not crazy...
>
>-bill
>rosenkra@convex.com
>
>(i am...)
To avoid any possible misunderstanding, my .sig is an offshoot of
the following scenario (I think it came from MAD magazine):

Elementary School Teacher: What's the answer?
Student: What do you think it is?
Teacher: I don't THINK, I know!
Student (shrugging): Well I don't think I know either.

Any followups on this to rec.humor...
--
----- ---- --- -- ------ ---- --- -- - -  -  plinio@seas.ucla.edu 
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