siegel@SCIVAX.STSCI.EDU ("HOWARD SIEGEL") (04/06/88)
(I appologize if you've alreadly seen this, but our network connection has been flakey and I didn't seen this come back.) In article <36568QAA@PSUVM>, bsu-cs!dhesi@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu writes: >In article <36568QAA@PSUVM> QAA@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>To all UNIX lovers - give me ONE good reason why "rm" is better than "delete" >>to delete a file. > >The VMS "delete" command has some serious flaws. It can't recursively >delete a directory subtree. It will also blindly delete a file even if >it has multiple directory entries for it, thus invalidating them with >no warning to the user. etc, etc... It is a matter of opinion whether the ACTIONS of the VMS delete command or the UNIX rm command are flawed. Having used them both, I wish they each had some of the features of the other. (Though through judicious use of each systems command language, one can approximate the desired actions.) I think the intent of the original poster was to question whether the command name used in UNIX, "rm", or the command name use in VMS, "delete", was the better choice for command. I grew up in DEC-land (TOPS-10, TOPS-20, RSX-11, VMS) and am most comfortable with those OS's choice of command names vs command actions. The command names seem more logically selected to describe the action that takes place. However, I've also used UNIX extensively and have had need to do things not available on VMS. Even knowing how to use "man" in most of its glory, and knowing where the manual pages are on the system so I could grep (grep??????? another obvious (:-)) synonym for "search") them, I still found it very difficult to find out what commands I needed to get the job done. Sometimes I couldn't get info based on a keyword from man because the keyword did not exist. For the most part, though, UNIX command names and options are just too cryptic. Economy of expression (a UNIX "feature") can be taken too far. This is one reason for the very large number of Intro to UNIX books available today. VMS needs no such plethora of elementary users guides. +-------------------------------------+--------------------------+ ! Howard Siegel - TRW, Inc. ! "I am quite sure that ! ! ! you could elevate an ! ! ARPA: siegel@scivax.arpa ! earwig to the level of ! ! USnail: One Space Park ! a nuclear scientist, ! ! MS. O2/2751 ! but it would still be ! ! Redondo Beach, Ca. 90278 ! a very stupid thing to ! ! AT&T: 213/535-5083 ! do!" ! +-------------------------------------+--------------------------+ ------