From owner-freebsd-questions  Fri Aug 17 17:53:15 2001
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Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 20:53:00 -0400
From: parv <parv_@yahoo.com>
To: Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net>
Cc: cjclark@alum.mit.edu, f-q <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: ps & terminal width sensitivity inside a script
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Mail-Followup-To: Kevin Oberman <oberman@es.net>,
	cjclark@alum.mit.edu, f-q <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
References: <20010817020514.B25092@moo.holy.cow> <200108172113.f7HLDuR30581@ptavv.es.net>
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In-Reply-To: <200108172113.f7HLDuR30581@ptavv.es.net>; from oberman@es.net on Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 02:13:55PM -0700
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this was, on the fateful occasion around Aug 17 17:13 -0400,
sent by Kevin Oberman                                                

{ in last episode, i was disappointed by the "just 'cause" 
  explanation for ps' sensitivity to terminal width...
}
 
> OK. Here is something more reasonable (but just a bit).
> 
...
> There was no termcap or terminfo. There were no windows or even
> CRTs. Since everything was one or the other, ps(1) was written with
> three options, default, w, and ww at 80, 132, and unlimited width,
> respectively. Since LOTS of people wrote aliases and shell scripts that
> were linked to this hard-coded behavior, the very idea of changing it
> was met by screams of protest, so that's where we still are.

so, in this day & age nobody (or not enough bodies) protests anymore?

i also got a similar (one liner) reply from mike meyer. after that i
had a funny feeling that it just might be the legacy.

btw, kevin, your mail did help to sooth my pain, even if a little.


> The SysV ps(1) started from scratch behaving in a reasonable fashion,
> but BSD systems seem forever tied to the bygone days of Teletypes.
> 

i suppose there won't be any changes coming anytime soon(?).


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