Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!chpf127
From: chpf127@ut-emx.UUCP (John W. Eaton)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: perl and other "non-standard" commands
Summary: Huh?
Message-ID: <13432@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 26 May 89 23:26:01 GMT
References: <1278@marvin.Solbourne.COM>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 34

In article dce@Solbourne.COM (David Elliott) writes:
> 
> Sometimes it isn't appropriate to use commands that aren't standard in
> commercial Unix systems.

Agreed.

> I am working on a project right now that has to run on SunOS 4.0 as
> distributed.  I can't assume that the customer will have perl, GNU
> awk, or even nawk, even though any of these would make my project
> significantly easier.  When Sun decides to make these standard (soon
> for nawk, who knows for the others), then I'll be able to use them.

Well, I don't get it.  If GNU awk would make things easier, why not
distribute it with your product?  You don't have to wait for Sun to do
it for you.

> Certainly, if you're going to write software that works on a specific
> set of systems that you can control the contents of, use perl, GNU
> awk, and anything else you can get your hands on to do a better job.

Didn't you just say that your target was a specific system/OS?  GNU
awk is not universal, but it is *free*.  Just distribute it.
 
> -- 
> David Elliott		dce@Solbourne.COM
> 			...!{boulder,nbires,sun}!stan!dce

-- 
John Eaton
chpf127@emx.utexas.edu
Department of Chemical Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas  78712