On Fri, 21 Nov 2008, Jim Meyering wrote:

But now, when I see it's so easy to roll your own,
I wonder if it's worth adding a C program to do that for you.

Opinions?

The most important thing is that this apparently long-standing problem be fixed in the way that places the least burden on the user.

Since all the proposed solutions involve the user having to do something, that means documenting it visibly. The most visible documentation is the command-line options and man pages of existing programs. Minimising user effort suggests either additional options to existing programs or a new program.

In short, I think this is an important enough case that a roll-your-own solution is really too much user burden; or put more positively, it's important enough that the additional maintainance burden will lift a massive weight from the users' shoulders.

One thing I still haven't seen, however, is a demonstration of why *in principle* this couldn't be made to Just Work. If it can't, then fair enough; if it can, it should be.

--
http://rrt.sc3d.org/
Reality is what refuses to disappear when you stop believing in it (Dick)


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