Re: change in behavior of make from 3.80 to 3.81

[George <d1945 at sbcglobal dot net>]

On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 10:34:04AM -0400, Christopher Faylor wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 17, 2006 at 09:12:27AM +0200, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> >On Aug 16 18:38, Christopher Faylor wrote:
> >>I think linux probably has some kind of /proc file option setting to
> >>understand drive letters.  Probably cygwin should emulate that.
> >
> >As far as I know there's no such option.  It seems to me this is really
> >called for and somebody should implement it.  Along these lines there
> >should be another /proc option which finally allows Linux users to use
> >the beloved backslashes as path separators.  I can't understand why
> >Linus deliberately changed the path separator from backslash to slash,
> >thus undermining an industry standard.  Intolerable.
> 
> <rant on>
> [...]
>
> Another real annoyance is the use of '-' and '--' for option specifiers.  

I've found it more annoying to have to re-read a manpage for a program 
that I have little interest in, rarely use and has too many features to 
count to remember WTF it is that my short-option-invocation of it does 
in some one-off script I wrote.  

> Windows uses just a single '/', 

Off the top of my head, but in alphabetic order ...

arp
control
dumpel
expand
nbtstat
netstat
ntrights
nslookup
ping
regedit
route
sclist
su
sysprep
tracert

All use a dash, except when they use a slash.  Which all do.  At least 
for the help output.  Except in those cases where there is no help 
output.  

Mind you, the above examples may or may not be representative of other 
programs where a '-?' is required in place of a '/?', notwithstanding 
those cases where usage information is output only when no options are 
provided, or an incorrect option is given, further notwithstanding those 
cases where, in the case of no options being provided, the program will 
hang, waiting for input.

If anyone is starting to see a pattern here, do let me know.

> Sometimes I think about writing my own OS which corrects these 
> inequities but I really just don't have the time...

Judging from a recent overlong thread on the main list, I'd suggest 
there's ample evidence that rants taste great and are more satisfying, 
in addition to taking less time.  Hardly words to live by, but they 
might go well with a beer.  If not, just enjoy the beer while 
remembering the good old days before DOS discovered directories.

-- 
George