Re: [PATCH] adding two new options to 'cp'

In <44CE03D2.2050803@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, Eric Anderson <anderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> typed:
The patch doesn't change any current behavior, nor should it be noticed
by anyone not looking for it. However, it is useful, and it does make
our cp work just like the GNU cp, which eases the migration path for
linux->FreeBSD users.

Is emulating Linux behavior that good an idea? I mean, if I want
Linux, I can download and install a copy. The joke about "Linux is for
people who hate Windows; FreeBSD is for people who love Unix" is funny
to me *because* it seems to capture the difference between the two
systems so accurately. I like Unix/BSD because I feel like the
developers respect the user, and are willing to let the user do pretty
much anything they need to do, even if there's no obvious reason for
them to want that. I detest Windows because the developers treat the
the user like an idiot, and write software that does things the way
they think the user should want to do them - and make it impossible to
do things that the developers don't think users would ever need/want
to do. Linux seems to have more of the latter attitude than the
former. [And no, I don't think this patch has that attitude; I just
don't think that "that's how linux does it" is a valid argument:
freebsd isn't linux.]

On a lighter note, if we want to ease the migration path for users
from other systems, then we should clearly add software to provide a
BSOD at random intervals to make Windows users more comfortable.

I suppose I'm just missing the reason *not* to commit such a simple and
useful set of options.

Feature bloat. Or, more verbosely, this doesn't add any new
functionality to the system, while adding things that we would rather
minimize.

If the functionality is all that useful, then people should have
already created shell code to make this functionality easily available
via the tools that already have it. If nobody needs this functionality
often enough to have done that, is it something that we want to
enshrine in compiled code?

<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm@xxxxxxxxx> http://www.mired.org/consulting.html
Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.
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