Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!lll-winken!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!widener!ukma!hsdndev!cmcl2!lanl!jlg
From: jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Command line arguements?
Message-ID: <24885@lanl.gov>
Date: 1 Jun 91 21:31:50 GMT
References: <1991May31.234623.7735@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Organization: Los Alamos Natl Lab, Los Alamos, N.M.
Lines: 21

From article <1991May31.234623.7735@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>, by gl8f@astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl):
> [...]
> Repeatedly whining on Usenet is also unprofessional, but that doesn't
> stop you. Try alt.religion.computers if you would like to dispute the
> philosophy behind the Unix shell.

Then you should stop repeatedly whining.  The only people whining on
this issue are those who refuse to respond to a legitimate request for
functionality in a rational way.  Telling someone who has a legitimate
request for specific and useful functionality to post his request to
alt.religion.computers is also whining.  Claiming that useful functionality
should _not_ be provided because of some hypothetical "philosophy" behind
the UNIX shell is what belongs in alt.religion.computers.

In the meantime, no one has yet given a legitimate _technical_ reason
that the shell should not be modified to provide the _unparsed_ command
line to programs.  I conclude that there is no such technical reason
and that the resistence to adding this feature is totally religious
in origin.

J. Giles