Re: [9fans] mishandling empty lists - let's fix it

[ron minnich <rminnich@gmail.com>]

one last note on this because it is kind of interesting.

Consistency is good. Sometimes it goes too far. The RCA computer OS
guys decided that CR and LF were not really command delimiters, that
rather ETX made the most sense. So to end a command you had to
remember to type ^C.

Consistent, totally. Conformant with the intent of ASCII, probably.
Kind of interesting, easy to embed CR and LF in your commands. And
utterly horrible to use.

There are many examples of this kind on computing, where consistency
was taken just a bit too far and led into a nasty thicket.

I think that in limited situations, inconsistency is a good thing.
And, conversely, one can take consistency as an absolute good, and run
off the road.

Some people argue that Plan 9 has run off the road for just that
reason. Many of us would beg to disagree.

That's where the judgement lies, I guess.

ron