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From: rbj@icst-cmr.arpa
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Why does this shell program run under csh????
Message-ID: <7885@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 16-Jun-87 18:23:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.7885
Posted: Tue Jun 16 18:23:18 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jun-87 03:17:53 EDT
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   In article <7803@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes:
   >I take your silence on the rest of my posting to mean that my account
   >was reasonably factual.

   You're taking more than I'm giving, then.  All my silence means is that
   I don't feel I had anything to say worth posting.

You are very aggressive at correcting errors. I claim that my account
of the facts (if maybe not the tone) is close enuf to the truth, or
you would have mentioned something about it.

   Your idea that AT&T (which you keep calling TPC for no good reason) was
   engaged in a conspiracy against the Cshell when it first picked # for a
   shell comment character is unfounded.  

I didn't say conspiracy. I said that AT&TPC (how's that for compromise)
didn't afford csh the same care that Bill Joy showed sh.

					  I suspect if they had chosen some
   other comment convention you would have railed against them for not using
   the same convention as the Cshell.

Good point, but you are still avoiding the issue. I took you to task
for railing against csh (and BSD sh) for deciding whether to run
a shell script under either csh or sh.

Obviously, *some* attempt must be made to determine which shell to use.
And that complicates matters. One must conform or get bitten.
The environment variable SHELL comes to mind, but is quickly discarded.
The information must be *in the script itself*. The #! convention is
(a start at) a good general solution, as there are bound to be more
than two shells, just as there are bound to be more than one.

How would you distinguish which shell to run?

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	<rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
	National Bureau of Standards
	Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688