Asri-unix.433 net.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!gwyn@UTEXAS-11 Tue Jan 5 22:38:33 1982 Reply to: On Yes, UNIX can be made more regular. No, this is not symptomatic of a system design flaw. People who want TENEX (or whatever) should get themselves one. Some of us NEED a small i/o multiplexer kernel that permits us to build applications on top without undue interference. This doesn't need to be UNIX, but UNIX satisfies the requirement rather well. As I have suggested before, if you have to supply computer services to naive users on your UNIX, you can easily build a nice menu-driven (or whatever you prefer) login shell for them. The standard shell is best for people who LIKE plumbing and such. Some of us do. It WOULD be nice if there were "recommended" argument schemes. G.C. will be supplying one candidate on the next USENIX conference tape. I don't think one could design a flexible argument interface such as UNIX's without some fool programmer coming up with a complex scheme for his particular application. Yet I have no desire to be prohibited from using the argument scheme according to application needs just to keep SOMEONE from using a peculiar design. ------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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.