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From: ian@sq.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang.c++
Subject: Re: enhancement: have C++ announce release number when it runs
Message-ID: <1317@sq.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Jul-86 13:39:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: sq.1317
Posted: Mon Jul 21 13:39:22 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 21-Jul-86 21:15:43 EDT
References: <379@mntgfx.mntgfx.UUCP>
Reply-To: ian@sq.UUCP (Ian Darwin)
Organization: SoftQuad, Toronto
Lines: 15
Keywords: release UNIX-philosophy -V
Summary: Don't make chatter the default.

This does not strike me as a good idea. Making programs chatter about 
things that are generally irrelevant is not a step in the right
direction. The approach we have taken is to provide an option
(-V seems common enough for this purpose) to many of our programs;
under -V, the program prints a version number in addition to
its normal output. But our programs are SILENT in the absence
of erroneous input, and that's in keeping with the way
(almost) everything else in UNIX operates. A -V option would
probably not be hard to add to C++ if you have the source.

-- 
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