daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond) (09/20/88)
I've just loaded version 2.3 Xenix and found that all of my
shell scripts which invoke `awk -e' are broken! Awk dies
with a syntax error complaining about the illegal -e.
Sure, the -e is not true System V syntax, and sure, I could
simply remove -e from the command line -- but, how would YOU
love to go find every shell script (and C system() call) where
`awk -e' is specified?
Since the -e convention has been in every Xenix awk since at
least 2.1, I consider this a flagrant point of backward incompatibility.
Why doesn't awk just ignore the unnecessary -e arg and continue
on with its business? I believe ignoring old syntax is a fairly standard
way of maintaining backward compatibility, and doesn't cause nearly
the headaches as requiring each script to be modified.
Is this going to affect anyone else's life, or am I the only soul in
the world who made use of `awk -e'?
Dave Hammond
UUCP: uunet!masa.com!{marob|dsix2}!daveh
DOMAIN: daveh@marob.masa.com
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