Subject: Re: CVS commit: basesrc/bin/ksh
To: Joerg Klemenz <joerg@gmx.net>
From: Greg A. Woods <woods@weird.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 09/29/2002 20:21:34
[ On Sunday, September 29, 2002 at 21:26:45 (+0000), Joerg Klemenz wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: CVS commit: basesrc/bin/ksh
>
> > > I did not say it was errornous. It just sucks.
> > > Cursor-addressable terminals have been available for some time now.
> > 
> > I'm not sure what you're complaining about then.  No matter how you
> > manipulate the characters on the screen, the behaviour of a horizonally
> > scrolling line editor is going to be essentially exactly the same.  The
> 
> I was asking for a wraping line editor, like bash, zsh, etc.

You're not making any sense.  A "wrapping line editor" is an oxymoron.
One line cannot be "wrapped" -- it must be scrolled horizontally.

> However you twist it, the fact that sh, ksh and bash share one
> .profile causes trouble.

NO, that's not necessarily true _at_all_.

I share one set of ~/.* files across _all_ of the platforms I use, and
that includes many versions of sh (though none quite so old as V7), some
versions of ash, POSIX sh, many versions of AT&T ksh, pdksh, and several
versions of bash.  I've been doing so for over 15 years now too.  I'm
sure that if I were forced to use zsh on some platform then I could
adjust so that I'd still be able to share the same files across all
platforms I use.  There is no "trouble" here that is not almost
trivially solved.

Do not invent demons and dragons where they do not exist.

> The only clean solution is IMHO a ksh specific rc file.

That's B.S.  There is no "clean" solution to sharing a single set of
~/.* files across many platforms and shells.  However it's not hard at
all to devise reliable run-time tests that can differentiate between
each type of shell and of course between platform variances as well.

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098;            <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;           <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>