From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Subject: Re: [9fans] Re: echo -n
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 21 Nov 2006 08:37:19 MST."
	<13426df10611210737l6796930eibbd12721570520ab@mail.gmail.com>
From: Bakul Shah <bakul+plan9@bitblocks.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 08:49:10 -0800
Message-Id: <20061121164910.9E4075B1B@mail.bitblocks.com>
Topicbox-Message-UUID: e47a83e8-ead1-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

> > :  I think Plan 9 got it completely right. Being able to push a 0-byte
> > :  write through the kernel is mighty handy. I got quite annoyed with
> > :  Unix at various points over the years as I watched "optimizations"
> > :  gobble up my attempts to get a 0 byte write through the kernel.

Reminds me of OSes where you couldn't have a 0 length file.
Their designers couldn't imagine why anyone would perform
such a despicable act.

> but, seriously, it's the general issue that you need to tell something
> (program, io device, network, whatever) that you don't have anything
> to say, which is not the same as saying nothing.

I am waiting for someone to write a book with the title
"zero one two...0xffffffff: Facts and Explorations of Computer Science".