Subject: Re: CVS commit: basesrc/bin/ksh
To: NetBSD Userlevel Technical Discussion List <tech-userlevel@netbsd.org>
From: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 10/03/2002 00:13:07
> Well, if you use sub-shells....   :-)

There are some things that are nigh impossible without using subshells
to isolate the effects of certain commands to well-defined fragments of
the script in question.

> Personally I've always thought that job control and sub-shells are
> more or less archaic features when you have a window system (and
> _everyone_ has a window system, or at least a simulation of one:
> window(1) :-).

window is, in my experience, flaky enough that I don't use it in any
situation where I would mind its crashing out from under me (which
actually doesn't leave much).  It's been a while since I tried it, so
the memory has faded, but what little I recall indicates that it
misbehaves mostly when multiple windows are all generating output at
once; I also seem to recall an absurdly low limit on the maximum number
of simultaneously-open windows (10, IIRC).

It also does unpleasant things to input, primarily hijacking at least
one character for its own purposes.

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