[net.unix] RE**n: unix command syntax

paul@osu-dbs.UUCP (Paul Placeway) (04/10/84)

< *FIX YOUR SOFTWARE* >

I am setting up a very fancy version of csh and the unix environment as a
project here at Ohio State, and I have had experience with both Unix(tm AT&T)
and Tops-20(tm DEC).  One aspect of the project is to clean up the command
syntax into something rational (single letter flags considered harmful).
Since it's my project, I can enforce conformance to the rules (yes, that
meens changing hundreds of programs), and I don't aggree with some of the
commities guidelines anyway.  Here is (in a nut-shell) my 'standard' for
general commands:

   command <global switches> [ filename <local switches> ...]

   <global switches> ::= (a repitition of)
			 -name
		     or  -name:value

   <local switches> ::= <global switches>

   (the least length unambigous switch name == full switch name)

Thus:
	ls -la ~foo
becomes:

	directory -long -all ~foo

and can be abbreviated:

	dir -l -a ~foo

I am submitting this asking for comments (but no "follow the standard"
please) from any and all.

					Paul W. Placeway
					The Ohio State University IRCC
					(UUCP: cbosgd!osu-dbs!paul)
					(CSNet: paul@ohio-state)

ps: looks sort of like Tops-20, doesn't it?

henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (04/13/84)

"(the least length unambigous switch name == full switch name)", eh?
Won't life be fun for your shell programs and your customers when you
add a new option that makes a bunch of old abbreviations obsolete...

And of course you won't be able to run anyone else's software, or get
anybody else to run yours.

I trust you plan to go through the documentation and remove the word
"UNIX" wherever it appears.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry

ian@utcsstat.UUCP (Ian F. Darwin) (04/14/84)

Paul Placeway (osu-dbs-paul) writes:

	I am setting up a very fancy version of csh and the unix environment as a
	project here at Ohio State, and I have had experience with both Unix(tm AT&T)
	and Tops-20(tm DEC).  One aspect of the project is to clean up the command
	syntax into something rational (single letter flags considered harmful).

	I am submitting this asking for comments (but no "follow the standard"
	please) from any and all.

This is not strictly speaking a "please follow the standard" plea.
It is instead a request that you pick a nice name for your new
system that does not end in -NIX. The reason for this is that,
however nice your might think it is to have long verbose
option names, and however much you like such a system, such a
system is not UNIX. UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Technologies
(sorry, last week's title) to describe a particular system.
If you make wide ranging changes, the system may no longer
be UNIX. Certainly your system as described isn't UNIX, and you
have little to gain by committing the fraud of telling people that it is.

Maybe you could use the term TWUNEX. Or TWINEX (as in binder twine).
-- 
Ian F. Darwin, Toronto  uucp: utcsstat!ian