From owner-freebsd-audit  Thu Jul 26  7:41: 9 2001
Delivered-To: freebsd-audit@freebsd.org
Received: from columbus.cris.net (ns.cris.net [212.110.128.65])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP
	id EF69F37B401; Thu, 26 Jul 2001 07:40:58 -0700 (PDT)
	(envelope-from phantom@ark.cris.net)
Received: from ark.cris.net (ark.cris.net [212.110.128.68])
	by columbus.cris.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA45918;
	Thu, 26 Jul 2001 17:40:48 +0300 (EEST)
Received: (from phantom@localhost)
	by ark.cris.net (8.11.1/8.11.1) id f6QEeIO30991;
	Thu, 26 Jul 2001 17:40:18 +0300 (EEST)
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 17:40:18 +0300
From: Alexey Zelkin <phantom@FreeBSD.org>
To: Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@starjuice.net>
Cc: Mike Barcroft <mike@FreeBSD.org>,
	Peter Pentchev <roam@orbitel.bg>, audit@FreeBSD.org,
	ache@FreeBSD.org, des@FreeBSD.org, jabley@automagic.org
Subject: Re: whois(1) new features for review
Message-ID: <20010726174018.B28536@ark.cris.net>
References: <20010725120952.B77004@coffee.q9media.com> <6944.996077077@axl.seasidesoftware.co.za>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0i
In-Reply-To: <6944.996077077@axl.seasidesoftware.co.za>; from sheldonh@starjuice.net on Wed, Jul 25, 2001 at 06:04:37PM +0200
X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 3.5-STABLE i386
Sender: owner-freebsd-audit@FreeBSD.ORG
Precedence: bulk
List-ID: <freebsd-audit.FreeBSD.ORG>
List-Archive: <http://docs.freebsd.org/mail/> (Web Archive)
List-Help: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=help> (List Instructions)
List-Subscribe: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=subscribe%20freebsd-audit>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG?subject=unsubscribe%20freebsd-audit>
X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG

hi,

Good list :) I think we need a secretary for each FreeBSD mailing 
list who will be writing down all "thinks" like that to allow it
to be reused some time later :-)

According '-R' flag. I suggest to just document deprecation
of '-R' flag in manpage for 5.x branch. But in 4.x branch
make it in way proposed by Mike (runtime deprecation message)
and document it in manpage as well.

On Wed, Jul 25, 2001 at 06:04:37PM +0200, Sheldon Hearn wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, 25 Jul 2001 12:09:52 -0400, Mike Barcroft wrote:
> 
> > Peter is correct.  It was my intention to slowly phase it out, but now
> > that I think about it, if I completely remove the -R option, getopt(3)
> > will tell the user that it's an illegal option and display the usage.
> 
> That's not how things get deprecated.  The way it used to work was, I
> think:
> 
> 1) Mention is made in the manual page that the option, utility or
>    interface is deprecated.
> 
> 2) The option, utility or interface is preserved until the next major
>    release.
> 
> 3) The option, utility or interface is removed and no longer documented.
>    It is now obsolete.
> 
> In addition to this, two ideas that I like are
> 
> 1) Use of deprecated features causes warnings to be generated until the
>    feature is obsoleted.
> 
> 2) Release notes warn about both deprecation and obsoletion.
> 
> I think this willy-nilly instantaneous removal of features usually just
> annoys users for the sake of gratifying the impatience of committers.
> :-)
> 
> Ciao,
> Sheldon.

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-audit" in the body of the message