On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:58:49 -0400, "Nick Guenther" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > > > Why does cat retain the -[etv], -[bn] and -[s] options? I am reading > > > the paper cited in cat's manpage and saw 'vis' mentioned. vis is in > > > base, and line numbering and stripping can be done with sed, so why > > > does cat have those options? Is for history, just for compatibility, > > > or has no one ever bothered to remove them (I find this unlikely)? > > > > > > -Nick > > > > Using the same argument, everything that grep, sed and awk can do can be > > done in perl, so why have grep, sed & awk? > > I have been wondering that too somewhat, but I assume it is because > they have different uses and they are easier to use than doing a perl > script every time. > > > All we need to do is teach > > everybody to type "perl -pe 1" in place of "cat". > > That's not the same as what I was asking. "perl -pe 1" is more complex > (in typing and implementation) than "cat", wheras "cat -v" is more > complex than "vis". > > Anyway, I wasn't trying to fight about it, I'm just curious.
You haven't heard the term Creeping featurism? It is the desire of UNIX hackers to add every functionality to a command until you can even send mail with it. The -exec option to find is the most classic example of this. With that option, using find, you can do 'anything'. :-) Up to and including rebooting... -- Eric Furman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
