Re: Re: [LIH] Linux or GNU/Linux? a philosophical problem

[Arun Sharma <adsharma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jun 07, 2000 at 10:44:36AM -0700, Sudhakar Chandra wrote:
> Arun Sharma proclaimed:
> > [1] GNU utilities often get criticized for these reasons
> >         - Feature creep. cp -a is an example. find + tar + cp would be
> >           functionally equivalent and in keeping with the UNIX philosophy.
> 
> Didn't the SYSV folks criticize BSD of feature creep?  

Yes, they did. But I haven't seen specific issues that were brought up.
Do you have any pointers I can chase, just out of curiosity ?

> <Deja Vu>
> Didn't we also discuss this in the past?
> </Deja Vu>

We did - not sure where. Lost in the mists of time :)

> 
> >         - Long command line options --foo etc. Some people think they are
> >           a waste of time and effort and contribute to bloat. If someone
> >           can't remember -f, it's likely that they won't remember --foo.
> 
> Believe it or not, I actually like the long getopts.  It is easier to
> remeber (but harder to type).

I find it easier too. Especially when the short option is a random letter.
But I can do without it. I heard this one from a guy who was using UNIX
since early 70s. He obviously knows all the standard options. But when
it comes to Linux, he used to ask me, "how do I do foo ?" and I'd reply,
"simple, use --bar" and he'd go nuts :)

I think, in the long run, the average user doesn't care about these.
GUIs will mask all of these things.

	-Arun