Subject: Re: the state of regex(3)
To: Hubert Feyrer <hubert@feyrer.de>
From: Greywolf <greywolf@starwolf.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 09/30/2004 15:56:43
[Thus spake Hubert Feyrer ("HF: ") 11:10pm...]

HF: On Thu, 30 Sep 2004, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
HF: > I think that POSIX conformance, albeit user controlled, is desirable.
HF: > If nothing else, it permits writing highly portable application code.
HF: > And it is a selling point for NetBSD.
HF:
HF: Indeed. I was heavily grossed out today when I learned what
HF: POSIXLY_CORRECT does for getopt(3) (=> "ls /etc/passwd -l" *yuck*).

...really?  You know, I must be the most naïve tenured UNIX user I know.

I have ALWAYS assumed that the first non-option(-associated) parameter
terminated option processing.  I was really surprised to discover, five
minutes ago, that Linux treats 'ls /etc/passwd -l' as 'ls -l /etc/passwd'.
That HEAVILY violates the POLA.

NetBSD, on the other hand, does no such folly... [just verified in
1.6ZE and 2.0G]

...or Did I Miss Something Here?®

HF:   - Hubert

				--*greywolf;
--
Microsoft Windows:  "What a totally amazing excellent discovery.  NOT!"