In message: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Mike Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
: > In short, I'm continuig the long tradition that we've done as FreeBSD
: > and that BSD and other Unix vendors did before us: compatibility with
: > other implementations.
:
: I suspect your definition of "long tradition" is a lot shorter than
: mine. That's they only way I can make that statement make sense - at
: least the part about BSD and other Unix vendors.
Long tradition here spans about 30 years. SunOS 3.5 had many switches
that did nothing, but were there for compatibility with System III
systems, as one example. If you look at the evolution of /bin/sh in
FreeBSD you'll notice that over the years it has accumulated much that
is POSIX. If you look at the evolution of FreeBSD itself, you'll
notice a change from a 'POSIX is evil, except where proven otherwise'
mindset to a 'POSIX is a good thing, except where proven otherwise.'
Lots of people hated POSIX back in the day, but today you'll not find
too many people still in that camp. POSIX used to be less well
defined than it is today. The GNU extensions have even been
standardized as POSIX extensions over the years.
It is my belief, based on experience in bringing over tools from other
systems (read Linux) that there's a need to support these extensions,
much like there was a need to support POSIX semantics 10 years ago.
While not well codified, they are none-the-less in widespread use.
Warner
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