Asri-unix.406 net.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!cosell@BBN-UNIX Sun Jan 3 23:27:09 1982 On From: Bernie Cosell I have been trying hard (successfully so far) to stay out of this, but there has now been enough misguided commentary on the matter of command names that I can't hold out any longer..... The folk who think that making `rm' simply become `del' has ANY bearing on the real fundamental problem have totally missed the point of the criticism. Further, such stroke-of-the-magic-wand isn't-UNIX-wonderful expedients only exacerbate the whole situation, rather than helping it. The problem is not any particular name (although there are many really losing names, `cat' among them - `grep' ain't so good either). The troubles span such problems as the unstructured laissez-faire chaos of naming/argument/switch/default conventions (or, more properly, non-conventions) coupled with a total disdain (for the most part) by the various applications programmers (since, to be sure, they get little or no help or guidance from the system) as to the confusion the chaos makes for users and the damage that ensues when users make otherwise-innocent (and simple) errors (and this extends to the kernel; for example, doing `glob' at shell level instead of in the kernel and the lack of version numbers condemn users to an irregular, disaster-prone environment). The criticisms of particular tiny pieces of UNIX that (repeatedly) get made are NOT intended as `fix these if you can' challenges, but rather as illustrations -- instances of the general, overall problems. If you don't understand what the real, fundamental, underlying problems are, then your fixes and suggestions (quickies or otherwise) are almost certainly going to be off the mark. If you believe that UNIX's problems are bad public relations and a few easily-patched-around minor glitches, then you're missing the point. /Bernie ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.