Shawn Walker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > The only possible solutions are:
> > a) have original source code
> > b) have the people that coded the original.
> >
> > My personal opinion is that a) is the safer way.
>
> "a)" may be the safer way but is not always necessary. Your example of
> Postscript interpreter doesn't fit nearly as well because you're
> talking about (as far as I know) is an undcoumented proprietary file
> format, whereas ksh88 is a well-documented shell with all or some of
> the original authors still alive. Not only that, you assume that
> because the source is not available that questions cannot be asked of
> people that do have access to the source. The point everyone is trying
> to make is that it is possible to create a compatible equivalent if
> the "footwork" is done upfront, the fine details can be sorted out
> with people who were the authors (possibly) or those who have access
> the source. While they can't tell you what the source says exactly,
> they could answer specific behaviour questions.
POSIX documentations (man pages) are written in a way that allows you
to implement all features of the program from only reading the apropriate
man page.
Jörg
--
EMail:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) Jörg Schilling D-13353 Berlin
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (uni)
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (work) Blog: http://schily.blogspot.com/
URL: http://cdrecord.berlios.de/old/private/ ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/schily
_______________________________________________
opensolaris-discuss mailing list
opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
