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From: std-unix@ut-sally.UUCP (Moderator, John Quarterman)
Newsgroups: mod.std.unix
Subject: Re: 1003.2 Command Groups
Message-ID: <6787@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Jan-87 19:00:51 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.6787
Posted: Wed Jan  7 19:00:51 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Jan-87 00:09:51 EST
References: <6710@ut-sally.UUCP>
Organization: IEEE P1003 Portable Operating System for Computer Environments Committee
Lines: 25
Approved: jsq@sally.utexas.edu

From: pyramid!utzoo!henry (Henry Spencer)
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 86 03:36:58 CST

Are the commands listed under "Software Development Environment" optional
as individuals or as a block?  If the latter, I find it disturbing that it
is proposed to make the presence of SCCS (get, delta, etc.) mandatory to
have a conforming system.  SCCS is badly designed and seriously obsolete.

While I realize that there is too much investment in existing SCCS use to
stamp it out any time soon, I suggest that it is an outstandingly poor
candidate for mandatory inclusion in a standard.  At least one analogous
system with what is generally agreed to be a vastly superior user interface
and internal design is already in widespread use.  Putting SCCS in 1003.2
is not codifying current practice, it is codifying what is increasingly
a relic of the past.  This is inappropriate.

If SCCS must be included in 1003.2's Software Development Environment, the
detailed description of the functionality of the commands should be trimmed
down so that it is not necessary to imitate every mistake of SCCS to be
in conformance.

				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry

Volume-Number: Volume 9, Number 11