[LOCATE ISSUE SOLVED:] Re: dumb question

[Paul Allen Newell]

On 1/4/2012 5:06 PM, Dave Ihnat wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 04, 2012 at 04:59:29PM -0800, Paul Allen Newell wrote:
>> I've always tried to make sure everything is lowest common
>> denominator between Microsoft and Linux unless there is a good
>> reason. I learned the hard way the first time I had to port from
>> Linux to Microsoft. I really dislike anything on my computers having
>> kittens.
> Heh.  Unfortunately, if we're using a Linux box as server host for a
> bunch'o Win boxen, we'll get the Windows directory paths inside the shares.
> *Shrug*.  It's the nature of the beast.
>

That part of the beast is not one I willing invite into my home network 
as I get to create it the way I want and I don't want that headache.

>> I think part of it was a dislike for style / syntax of scripting /
>> shells. ...
>> ...
>> ...I was brought up with programming languages
>> and assembler/machine, they defined my taste in tailors ...
> Well, remember the Bourne shell--the origin for sh, bash, etc.--was written
> to be ALGOL 68.  So it's a programming language...

Yes, good point. I never used ALGOL-"any year" (or if I did, I was too 
young to know it). I went through machine language, JOSS, and SAIL 
(there may have been others that I can't remember). I know that one can 
view shell scripting as shell programming and I won't dispute that view.

> An interesting little ditty, if you don't know it.  Steve Bourne really
> loved ALGOL.  So much so that he wrote the original shell *in* ALGOL...kind
> of.  It was ostensibly 'C'...but he created an entire set of #defines to
> allow him to actually write the shell in ALGOL.
>
> When I heard this, I said, "Naw...".  When I actually got to work at Bell
> Labs around 1980, and got access to the Unix source code, one of the first
> things I did was check the source.  Yes, he did.
>
> This also explains why the original shell remained static for so long--it
> was a hellish mess; nobody wanted to be responsible for trying to change it.
>
>

Thanks for the story!
Paul