*BSD News Article 35081


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From: brewer@hamlet.umd.edu (Peter Brewer)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.user-friendly,comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.programmer,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.aux,comp.unix.bsd,comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: xargs and alias commands
Date: 28 Aug 1994 13:25:25 -0400
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Lines: 43
Distribution: inet
Message-ID: <33qha5$3kr@hamlet.umd.edu>
References: <33af70$8rd@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> <33gvms$56a@wombat.cssc-syd.tansu.com.au> <1994Aug28.120942.3613@ifi.unizh.ch> <ROCKWELL.94Aug28100750@nova.umd.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hamlet.umd.edu

In article <ROCKWELL.94Aug28100750@nova.umd.edu>,
Raul Deluth Miller <rockwell@nova.umd.edu> wrote:
>Apostolos Lytras:
>. This thread could go on for ever... but, really: who would want to
>. change from a shell he or she is comfortable and productive with to
>. something else?  People like what they know... Reality check.
>
>Who would ever want to learn anything new if they're already
>comfortable with their life?
>
>Personally, my shell preference is:
>
>[1] bash
>[2] tcsh
>[3] ksh
>
>
>Raul D. Miller           n =: p*q             NB. 9<##:##:n [.large prime p, q
><rockwell@nova.umd.edu>  y =: n&|&(*&x)^:e 1  NB. -.1 e.e e.&factors<:p,q [.e<n

If this is your list is a 'correct' one. Bash is THE ONLY shell which currently
supports the IEEE 1003.2 POSIX standard. (Although there are plans to make
korn support it as well.) With BASH you can put backslash-escapes in the
primary prompt string, PS1. So, it is possible to correctly create the csh
prompt I earlier posted. Commands like builtiin, command and enable are cool.
Pushd and Popd exist. Bash has fully customizble emacs line editing. Finally,
Rosenblatt, (the author of learning the korn shell), was 'compelled' to say
that many users prefer BASH to the Korn shell. I would hazard that many of
the features popular in other shells such as tcsh have a better chance to
appear in the BASH than in any other shell. Best way to look at would be
in the 'olden' days there was bourne, (sh) the primary shell in which most
scripts were written and (csh) as a secondary pattern matching oriented shell.
TODAY: BASH should be the primary shell, and tcsh replacing csh should be
the secondary shell. BASH is totally compatible with all bourne shell scripts
since condition tests are in the old bourne style. 

-- Peter

-- 
SAVE Mac Desktop Unix! Tell Apple to continue A/UX! Don't Let It Happen Again!->
  "Just about every computer on the market today runs Unix, except the Mac
   (and nobody cares about it)."               -- Bill Joy 6/21/85
********* Peter W. Brewer        brewer@umd5.umd.edu **********************