Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!rbj@cmr.icst.nbs.gov
From: rbj@cmr.icst.nbs.gov (Root Boy Jim)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Tool -flag considered harmful (was: grep replacement)
Message-ID: <16199@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: 16 Jun 88 15:35:12 GMT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 21

? From: Barry Shein <bzs@bu-cs.bu.edu>

? If people think that filename:linenum is so swell why not have grep
? *only* produce that under all conditions? Ridiculous, right? The
? whole damn argument is ridiculous.

No, Barry, you've got it all wrong! Grep should put out
"filename:byteoffset". Grep should not know about newlines;
there is another tool that translates byte offsets to line numbers.

No, wait! Grep should not even print filename, but merely the argv
index. After all, the calling program should know which filenames
it called grep with.

? 	-Barry Shein, Boston University

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell	<rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
	National Bureau of Standards
	Flamer's Hotline: (301) 975-5688
	The opinions expressed are solely my own
	and do not reflect NBS policy or agreement
	Careful with that VAX Eugene!