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From: seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu (George Seibel)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Tool -flag considered harmful (was: grep replacement)
Message-ID: <10989@cgl.ucsf.EDU>
Date: 14 Jun 88 04:38:13 GMT
References: <7962@alice.UUCP> <4615@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com>
Sender: daemon@cgl.ucsf.edu
Reply-To: seibel@hegel.mmwb.ucsf.edu.UUCP (George Seibel)
Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
Lines: 15

In article <4615@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> barnett@steinmetz.ge.com (Bruce G. Barnett) writes:
[...]
]I am all for progress. Just remember, that there are tools used by the
]system, and tools used by humans. [...]

Well put.  When programmers at AT&T are making design decisions that may
affect the way hundreds of thousands of people interact with their computers
for years to come, I wonder who checks it out?   The wizard down the hall?
How many of you have ever tried to teach UNIX to a casual user?  How about
trying to *sell* UNIX in industrial environments where the amount of training
required to use an O/S is a major consideration?  Creeping featurism is bad,
tools are good, agreed.  But there comes a time when the tool philosophy
needs to bend a little.  Context in grep and diff is just such a case.

George Seibel, UCSF
seibel@cgl.ucsf.edu