Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!leah!itsgw!steinmetz!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: friendly messages
Message-ID: <1068@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 24 Feb 89 21:26:41 GMT
References: <435@laic.UUCP> <955@auspex.UUCP> <9218@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <5734@bsu-cs.UUCP> <90507@sun.uucp> <22569@ism780c.isc.com> <4969@xenna.Encore.COM>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 6

>The point is that the output of one command is intended to be useful
>as the input of another command, or, the terminal.

Output, or error output?  The error output of commands *should* be
intended to be useful to the poor sap who's trying to use the command,
even at the expense of making it harder for some program to parse.