Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rlgvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!rlgvax!guy From: guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: pussyfooting Message-ID: <520@rlgvax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 28-Feb-85 01:50:44 EST Article-I.D.: rlgvax.520 Posted: Thu Feb 28 01:50:44 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Mar-85 03:57:36 EST References: <8608@brl-tgr.ARPA> Organization: CCI Office Systems Group, Reston, VA Lines: 23 > Doug Gwyn writes... > > "cat"'s function is to concatenate files. Period. > > > > The day this fails to be true is the day "cat" is no longer > > a UNIX utility. > > Yarbles! Great boolshy yarblockles to you!!! This is the kind of > thinking that keeps SYS V from being as good as 4.2BSD. `Cat' is alive > and well in spite of what DMR said in the BSTJ. Even he can be wrong. What kind of thinking? The notion that the availability of N options in "cat" is what makes 4.2BSD great? Sorry, 'taint so. A simple linenumbering utility ("simple" here excludes "nl" - does anybody actually use all the subsubsubsubsection stuff there?) does the job of "cat -n" quite nicely, and a simple visual display utility does the job of "cat -v" equally well. Putting both those functions into "cat" makes as much sense as putting file copying, file deleting, file renaming, directory listing, etc., etc. into a program named, for the sake of argument, "PIP". Besides, System V has, unfortunately, picked up "cat -v". Guy Harris {seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy