> Generally I think it's better to provide information in small pieces
> that other programs can concatenate together if desired, rather than
> forcing them to parse it.  In particular, a release number should
> NEVER be parsed.  However, by deviating from a (perhaps unofficial)
> standard, you will FORCE configuration scripts to parse uname's output
> in order to separate out the release number.
>
>Perhaps you think you are helping society by forcing configuration
>scripts to be POSIX compliant.  In my opinion, this change will cause
>scripts to resort to gross hacks.  Please think this over carefully.

In other words:

"A release number should never be parsed," so scripts _match_ (i.e.
with string compares, etc.) against it rather than parse it?

So in other words, they can just match against the new string, no?
I.e. the release 'number' to match against becomes "NetBSD 0.9B"?
how is that any worse than the 'number' being "0.9B"?

Where, exactly, do the "gross hacks" come in?  If the scripts don't
parse the string, they certainly won't have to (or be able to 8-)
in the future!  (If they do parse the strings now, you've already
conceded that they're broken, so...)  If the scripts use quotes where
appropriate (and they definitely should), they have no problem with
multi-word strings.


I've yet to see an argument for why the new strings are any harder
to "configure" against than the old, and your message certainly didn't
provide one.


chris

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