Re: [PATCH] Remove absolute paths from gpg.rc
On Fri, Mar 23, 2007 at 02:52:24AM +0000, Dave wrote:
> Check this out:
> $ cat --version
> cat (coreutils) 5.2.1
> Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman.
>
> Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
> warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
> Hey, this is a three-year-old program that still does its job right today.
> Can
> you imagine how much programmer work hours were saved by the decision to make
> cat(1) do one thing and do it right the first time?
It's three years old only because you haven't installed a newer version.
Hey look, I've got an even older one than that:
$ cat --version
cat (textutils) 2.0.21
Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman.
Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Yet at the same time, if I look at a recently installed operating system:
$ cat --version
cat (GNU coreutils) 5.97
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of
the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Written by Torbjorn Granlund and Richard M. Stallman.
So it is in fact under one year old, and it seems that programmer work hours
are still being spent on it.
As for "cat" being a simple tool to do one thing, well...
$ cat --help
Usage: cat [OPTION] [FILE]...
Concatenate FILE(s), or standard input, to standard output.
-A, --show-all equivalent to -vET
-b, --number-nonblank number nonblank output lines
-e equivalent to -vE
-E, --show-ends display $ at end of each line
-n, --number number all output lines
-s, --squeeze-blank never more than one single blank line
-t equivalent to -vT
-T, --show-tabs display TAB characters as ^I
-u (ignored)
-v, --show-nonprinting use ^ and M- notation, except for LFD and TAB
--help display this help and exit
--version output version information and exit
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.
Examples:
cat f - g Output f's contents, then standard input, then g's contents.
cat Copy standard input to standard output.
Report bugs to <bug-coreutils@xxxxxxx>.
It's actually not that simple and it can be used for several different
(but related) purposes.
imc