Re: cp -n diff

[Zafer Aydoğan <zafer%aydogan.de@localhost>]

2011/5/3 Thor Lancelot Simon <tls%panix.com@localhost>:
> On Tue, May 03, 2011 at 10:50:52PM +0200, Zafer Aydo?an wrote:
>>
>> It is not encouraged to use use -n in scripts, neither is -i.
>> Both are not POSIX compliant but both are useful.
>> This feature is part of the FreeBSD repository since almost a decade
>> and it is common behaviour in modern Unix operating systems.
>
> (Except that it isn't, since the two "modern Unix operating systems"
>  you specifically named use _different_ syntax)

In terms of "use can use that feature" it is.

>
>> To have consistency across the BSD's it is also named -n.
>> I'm not suggesting to import everything from FreeBSD,
>> but why being narrow-minded ? If its useful, we should have it.
>
> Are you familiar with the phrase "opportunity cost"?  The opportunity
> cost of extraneous, duplicative features is not zero -- neither for
> the people maintaining them nor for the people using them, since
> elegance and conceptual clarity are not without value.
>

I am and this patch has absolutely no "opportunity costs",
once it is committed.
Additionally it is tiny, compared to other "stuff" that
has been added to base apart from their  "opportunity costs".

Also, I don't see the duplicative features you are defending so strongly.

Honestly, I don't see one valid argument in this thread so far
apart from warm words.

Zafer.










> Thor
>