Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: grep vs. SEARCH (Was Re: Software Development Tools)
Message-ID: <6914@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 89 17:03:55 GMT
References: <58080@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Rahul Dhesi)
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 32

In article <58080@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> leichter@CS.YALE.EDU (Jerry Leichter
(LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU)) writes:
     The thing that is so silly about this debate is that it misses the
     obvious answer...Sure; I've had [grep] on every VMS system I've
     used since V2.3 or so, and before that I used it on RSTS and RSX
     systems

thus making the point that if it's available for VMS from somewhere, it
should not be considered a deficiency in VMS.

If we buy this reasoning, then it is almost meaningless to compare two
operating systems.  For just about anything you want to do, there's a
software package available to do it on your favorite OS.

I don't buy this reasoning.  Jerry Leichter's system may have grep.
But I may want to distribute software that needs grep to run, and I
can't assume the most VMS sites will have it.

Can I reasonably assume that the user will have make ("MMS" on VMS
systems)?  Or must I supply a tedious COM file to do the compilation or
expect the installer to do it by hand?  Can I assume the user has
*some* standard high-level language compiler on his VMS system so I may
write portable software?

These are the questions that matter.

I'm sure you can find UNIX commands that not every UNIX system has, so
the debate will continue, but please don't use the quoted reasoning to
justify either side of the debate.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi@bsu-cs.bsu.edu>
UUCP:    ...!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi