"Alec Warner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> posted [EMAIL PROTECTED], excerpted below, on Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:35:04 -0700:
> gentoo-x86 uses bash; the ebuilds, the eclasses, they all rely on it. > I'm pretty sure most package managers rely on bash as well, but I have > not looked at the code outside of portage to verify. > > I really dislike ideas where the compelling argument is 'in the future > we may make a specific decision and that makes that one choice easier.' > If you have a compelling argument for switching the entire tree to POSIX > then give it; however I'm pretty sure it is a difficult argument to make > (Uberlord tried to make it in the past and did not succeed). Otherwise > lets just roll with the bash implementation. ++ This seems to be what it comes down to. Based on past discussion, while individual devs can go POSIX and nobody's going to complain, indeed, they're likely to be respected for taking that position in regard to /their/ /own/ /code/, there's sufficient resistance to making /all/ devs favor POSIX over BASH that it's effectively not even rational to contemplate it at this time, nor is it likely to be for a dev generation or more. Trying to do otherwise is /perceived/ as (note I didn't say it was the /intent/ of, only /perceived/ as) trying to force POSIX down the throat of others, and given the current state requiring bash, turns that respect for devs doing it for their own work on its head -- they're then seen as being an active danger to the ability of devs who don't differentiate between POSIX sh and BASH to continue as devs in good Gentoo standing, with the entirely predictable reaction being to oppose them at nearly any cost. Which pretty much leaves Gentoo depending on BASH now and for the foreseeable future, and there's little point in debating it further or indeed, in "artificially" trying to reduce that dependence, except in one's own work if desired. It's just not worth the fractious debates it causes, particularly when the conclusion is predetermined based on past iterations. We've lost very good developers on this issue in the past. Let's not make it any more, OK? -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
