Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 22:58:19 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: peter.jeremy@alcatel.com.au (Peter Jeremy) Cc: tlambert@primenet.com (Terry Lambert), arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Import of tcsh into src/contrib/, replacing src/usr.bin/csh Message-ID: <200004112258.PAA09930@usr09.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <00Apr12.082446est.115234@border.alcanet.com.au> from "Peter Jeremy" at Apr 12, 2000 08:24:42 AM
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> >The problem is not that "csh" scripts from other systems won't run > >on "tcsh", the problem is that if someone naievely writes code > >thinking that the result will then run on some other box, when in > >fact it will not, because that boxes "csh" has not be replaced > >with "tcsh". > > Leaving aside the issue of the sanity of anyone who writes csh > scripts... Exactly the same arguments could be made about our C > compiler (which supports a number of extensions to ANSI C), our awk > (which supports extensions to the language defined in the AWK book), > our troff (which includes extensions to ditroff), our tar, our dd, > and presumably many others. By golly, you're right! 8-). I've made the argument many times that the compier should be an add-in, and one of the options should be TenDRA (or the OSF compiler, on the Alpha), and that we should seperate all assembly code from C code so that we could have C versions of everything, and greatly facilitate porting -- as well as assembly versions being written by the people who own the platforms. I've recently had problems with man pages on another system using real "troff" because of the macro extensions. > The obvious solution is to have a 'csh-compatibility' mode (I don't > know if tcsh has one or not). Actually, a "kernel.turn_off_all_the_platform_specific_extensions=1" is something else I've wanted for BSD's, to let a developer write code that will run on all BSD systems. I think the first BSD platform to get this option will win, in fact, because all commercial developement would immediately move there to target all BSD platforms, instead of one at a time. Don't tell the Linux folks, though... if they steal the idea, then we are doomed... ;^p Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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