Re: Invalid Operating System

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From: Martin Ebourne
Subject: Re: Invalid Operating System
Date: 09:49 on 10 Dec 2006
On Sun, 2006-12-10 at 10:06 +0100, H.Merijn Brand wrote:
> On Sat, 09 Dec 2006 22:31:34 +0000, Martin Ebourne <lists@xxxxxxx.xx.xx>
> wrote:
> > P.P.P.P.S. Why are you using tcsh anyway? With a choice of perfectly
> > usable (if not, unfortunately, actually perfect) shells such as zsh or
> > bash, there's no excuse for using a csh derivative. Heck, there's even
> > ksh-93 if you're really keen.
> 
> You're a youngster. That's obvious.

Alas, not so young as I was.

> I use the tcsh, and am always a bit disappointed if it is not installed on a
> system. Back in the days there was only 'sh' and 'csh', the choice was easy.
> With the limited possibilities of 'sh', the choice for csh was a simple one.
> Then came better versions for both: 'ksh' and 'tcsh', and - coming from csh -
> that choice was simple too.

Yes, I was a user of tcsh until I made the switch to zsh version 2. Well
worth the few hours it took me back in the early-mid 90s.

> So, if you are raised with bash, you are probably familiar with it very nice
> features.

No not me. I remember bash when it was supposed to be just a free
replacement for the bourne shell, and not a complex interactive shell.
(The linux crowd would have been much better off keeping bash for
scripts and using zsh for interactive, yet another case of NIH
syndrome.)

> I don't really care where my shell is located, as long as it is in my default
> $PATH.

I care exactly where the shell is located because otherwise scripts just
cannot be made portable across machines(*):
#!$(whence ksh)
just doesn't work for some reason. (And no, nasty hacks using 'env' are
not my thing.)

I guess you don't care where tcsh is located because you've got enough
sense never to write a script in it. Best place for tcsh is /dev/null
and do the world a favour.

(*) Yes, perl I hate you. /usr/bin/perl, /usr/local/bin/perl,
/opt/somethingorother/where/the/fuck/have/you/gone/now/perl. It's a
shame really, perl scripts should be some of the most portable, except
they're not, and for the most trivially absurd reason.

Cheers,

Martin.

There's stuff above here

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