Re: why crypt in ed?

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

Kathe <kathe%sdf.org@localhost> writes:

> just noticed, there is a crypt function in /bin/ed
> and consequently /bin/ed is linked to the crypt lib.
> may i know why? this somehow goes against the unix
> philosophy of one small tool doing a small task but
> doing it well. why do we need a swiss army knife? :)

A question that immediately comes to mind is how long it has been there.

Often, features date from Seventh Edition, Sixth, or even earlier.  The
ed(1) man page says it appeared in First Edition; I can only say it was
there in Sixth.

Man page archaeology says that the -x feature was added in Seventh
Edition:

http://man.cat-v.org/unix_6th/1/ed
http://man.cat-v.org/unix_7th/1/ed

The BSD way is to respect tradition, absent a compelling reason.