porting unix progs to plan9

porting unix progs to plan9

[Ozan]

>2.  For those areas where there IS a definite hole (e.g.  news reader),
>writing new applications seems a much better idea...

I entirely agree with this: I detest all newsreaders: they are cramped,
monolithic pieces of cybercrud that make vms utilities look simple and
elegant.

There needs to be a better way to do news, both on an average un*x and
on plan 9.

oz

porting unix progs to plan9

[Gary]

1.  I'm afraid of losing the nice feel of a small number of good tools if
*nix progs are ported just for the purpose of having familiar old
faithfuls.

2.  For those areas where there IS a definite hole (e.g.  news reader),
writing new applications seems a much better idea, to take advantage of
the nicer programming environment.  For example I've put together the
skeleton of a calendar management file system, and dhog here is working
on a news reading file system, which will hopefully fit in nicely with
other plan 9 tools, especially help(1).

P.S.  Help(1) is way cool.  Try it for an hour and you won't go back.  And
I hear rumours of a successor called acme which should be even better.  

porting unix progs to plan9

[Gary]

1.  I'm afraid of losing the nice feel of a small number of good tools if
*nix progs are ported just for the purpose of having familiar old
faithfuls.

2.  For those areas where there IS a definite hole (e.g.  news reader),
writing new applications seems a much better idea, to take advantage of
the nicer programming environment.  For example I've put together the
skeleton of a calendar management file system, and dhog here is working
on a news reading file system, which will hopefully fit in nicely with
other plan 9 tools, especially help(1).

P.S.  Help(1) is way cool.  Try it for an hour and you won't go back.  And
I hear rumours of a successor called acme which should be even better.