Xref: utzoo comp.unix.xenix:4564 comp.mail.uucp:2664 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!agate!bionet!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!pirate!chet From: chet@pirate.CWRU.EDU (Chet Ramey) Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix,comp.mail.uucp Subject: Re: Altos XENIX/SCO XENIX Message-ID: <402@cwjcc.CWRU.Edu> Date: 20 Jan 89 21:09:55 GMT References: <397@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> <439@acheron.UUCP> <210@tiamat.FSC.COM> <598@tapa.UUCP> <402@mjbtn.MFEE.TN.US> <2148@van-bc.UUCP> <3273@cbnews.ATT.COM> <32171@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@cwjcc.CWRU.Edu Reply-To: chet@pirate.UUCP (Chet Ramey) Distribution: na Organization: CWRU Andrew R. Jennings Computing Center Lines: 48 [Mark Horton says:] >>Sounds like the -v (verbose) option I added to the 4.0BSD wc command. >>(It's not in 4.3BSD's wc, Rob Pike made them take it out.) and Bill Wisner then asks: >Why? [If indeed it was Rob Pike who "made them take it out"] Rob Pike's views concerning `unnecessary' (`frivolous'? :-) options to Unix commands are well known (cf. "cat -v Considered Harmful" (Toronto Usenix, 1983), "The Unix Programming Environment" (IEEE Computer, around 1984, as well as the book of the same name), and an article along the same lines in the second BSTJ Unix issue in '84). He is one of the more vocal `Unix minimalists', and has stated more than once that adding options to an existing program that result in `new behavior' runs counter to the Unix philosophy and should be stamped out (well, that's probably a little strong, but you get the idea). (For example, cat making funny characters visible with -v is at odds with its original purpose, concatenating files. He has used the BSD ls columnation of its file lists as another example of this.) The alternative he has espoused is more small tools that do one specific task (as an example: the implementation of `vis' in "The Unix Programming Environment" to do the job of `cat -v'). I would guess that he thought wc's `-v' option was sufficiently removed from wc's original purpose to be undesirable. (Mark, how much did it increase code size?) I should say that I am not attempting to attribute opinions to Rob that he may not hold; these are merely my interpretations of some of the material he has written. Chet Ramey "His efforts in support of this worthy cause Network Management Group were warmly applauded by the doctors; several Case Western Reserve University nurses also gave him the clap." chet@{cwjcc,pirate}.CWRU.EDU -- "Weekend Warriors" Chet Ramey "His efforts in support of this worthy cause Network Management Group were warmly applauded by the doctors; several Case Western Reserve University nurses also gave him the clap." chet@{cwjcc,pirate}.CWRU.EDU -- "Weekend Warriors"