david@varian.UUCP (David Brown) (06/13/85)
In all documentation I've seen for the col command (v7, sIII, sV, 4.1bsd,
4.2bsd, 2.9bsd), it is stated that:
Col normally converts white space to tabs to shorten printing time.
If the -x option is given, this conversion is suppressed.
However, in 4.1bsd (and 4.2bsd I believe), Berkeley removed the -x flag
and created a new flag -h which has the opposite meaning: col will
convert white space to tabs only if the -h flag is given. Apparently they
never documented this change.
On my system, I have changed the flags back to the way they are documented,
as I don't want to change all the documentation, and I want any scripts
that I write to be portable to non-Berkeley systems. Has anyone else
noticed this?
--
David Brown (415) 945-2199
Varian Instruments 2700 Mitchell Dr. Walnut Creek, Ca. 94598
{zehntel,dual,amd,fortune,resonex,rtech}!varian!daviddpg@busch.UUCP (David Grossman) (06/26/85)
We have been aware that the -x flag disappeared from 4.1 BSD for over a year. However, not having a source license, we weren't clever enough to realize that the flag was changed-for-the-sake-of-changing to -h. So naturally, we wrote our own, vastly improved filter. Interestingly enough, we had a service contract with Uniq out of Chicago. When we told them of our dilemma, they said, "Oh. We'll see what we can do." We have since terminated that contract. David Grossman ..!ihnp4!we53!busch!dpg Anheuser-Busch Companies 314/577-3125 One Busch Place, Bldg. 202-4 St. Louis, MO 63118