Asri-unix.399 net.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!BH@SU-AI Sat Jan 2 16:23:26 1982 linking /bin/cat to /bin/type From: Brian Harvey [This isn't exactly a flame, it's more a meta-flame.] I think the quality of the discussion, at least among ourselves, would be improved by a little less defensiveness. If someone complains that cat and rm and grep aren't good names for programs, it's not responsive to point out that the names can be changed. It IS responsive to say, as some have said, that Unix is meant to be a development system for programmers, and is not meant to hold the hand of naive users. That's a point of view with which I disagree (as 16-bit micros become prevalent, we are entering an era in which we can rule the world, but only by abandoning that viewpoint), but at least it is a point of view with some content. In any operating system, at least all the ones I've ever used, it is pretty easy to give a program another name. And there are plenty of cosmetic changes which I've made to my own Unix system. But each such change means a point on which the standard documentation (the UPM) no longer reflects how things are on my system, which means that I have to try to track down the 87 copies on-site, not to mention the copies people have taken home, so that the wonderful new feature becomes useful by being documented. Surely it's better, if something really is an improvement, for it to be a STANDARD, documented improvement. That, I suggest, is why the people who don't like cat's name feel it worth bringing the point up with us. A non-defensive response would be "I'm glad that's the worst problem you have with Unix! Maybe you're right; maybe we should adopt a new set of standard names for the utility programs" or "I'm glad that's the worst problem you have with Unix! But I disagree; I think the names we have are just fine." But "Boy are you dumb; you can change it yourself with this simple two-line shell script. Why are you wasting our precious time?" is defensive. It amounts to saying that every last detail in Unix as it exists today is perfect, take it or leave it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.