From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from localhost by hawkwind.utcs.utoronto.ca with SMTP id <25059>; Wed, 15 Dec 1999 03:22:52 -0500 To: rc Subject: Re: rc futures In-reply-to: tjg's message of Fri, 10 Dec 1999 11:55:06 -0500. Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 19:17:11 -0500 From: Chris Siebenmann Message-Id: <99Dec15.032252est.25059@hawkwind.utcs.utoronto.ca> | 10. `$PATH' versus `$path'. I think rc should prefer `$path' if both | are set. Likewise for `$cdpath' and `$home'. I disagree for the already stated reasons. $PATH is standard on Unix; when rc starts, if $PATH and $path disagree, something has fiddled with $PATH and expects the fiddling to be respected. Similarly for $HOME and $home. | 11. `.' should search `$path'. This will be fixed. If Plan 9 rc doesn't, I don't think we should either. | 16. Make `*' match files beginning with `.' (except `.' and `..', of | course). This is something of a religious question, but my feeling is | that special treatment of "dot files" is a mistake. (Suggestion ditto.) This might be a good idea in a new shell, or for rc on a new system (without the cultural history of dotfiles). I think it is a really bad idea for an existing shell on an existing system, for all the obvious reasons. I would never run a version of rc that behaved this way here. | 17. Improved error reporting, as discussed on the list recently. Also, | I intend that rc should prefix its errors with `rc: '; the long standing | Unix tradition that shells are special in this regard is not very | useful, I think. My personal opinion is that rc should report errors in a shell script marked both with rc's name and with the script's name (so that it is obvious that it is a syntax error in the script, and not an error message being emitted by the script). I think rc should retain its current way of reporting the exit status of commands run directly from an interactive session. Whether rc should print 'rc: ' in front of syntax errors during interactive sessions seems like a religious issue. In the name of minimalism, I'd vote no. - cks