> I for one favor practical usefulness over theoretical correctness.  An
> environment variable option would trivially satisfy both groups. It could
> operate as-is so nothing pre-existing would be affected.

how long does it take you to run mk, and then realise you didn't Put your
last set of changes?

i once changed mk on my local machine to act as you suggest, and then
took far too long trying to figure out why the program's behavior didn't
reflect the code. more time than i saved from waiting on mk? who knows?