Bug#33156: debian-policy: Cannot find referenced file in given URL
Hamish Moffatt <hamish@debian.org> writes:
> On Wed, Feb 10, 1999 at 09:46:40AM +0100, J.H.M. Dassen wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 09, 1999 at 15:29:38 -0500, Bob Hilliard wrote:
> > > This reference should be deleted, or the URL updated.
> >
> > >From http://www.faqs.org/faqs/unix-faq/shell/csh-whynot/ I gather the
> > canonical URL nowadays is
> > ftp://perl.com/pub/perl/versus/csh.whynot.gz
>
> I think this section should be removed from policy. This document
> contains some (very arguable) reasons why new scripts should not be written
> in csh, but absolutely no reasons why upstream csh scripts should not be used.
> Also, the document points out a lack of features in csh. If you don't need
> those features, it's just as good as bash.
If you don't need those features and you don't need any csh specific
stuff, the script will run on bash as well, so why not use /bin/sh? Its
loaded into memory already.
Also isn't it policy to write scripts for a posix shell when possible?
Special bash features should be avoided.
> This requirement is just as bad as `all scripts on Debian must be written
> in emacs'.
If everyone uses emacs and nobody a posix shell, its just as good.
The policy is there so that scripts can be understood. Somebody only
has to learn one syntax to be able to read all scripts. That way its
much easier to understand those scripts. Also bugs can be fixed
easilier, since more people can look at it.
Also thing about another thing that might come in the future:
Given a config script written for a posix shell and with a policy that
any user interactions may only be made via dpkg-question (something
that might be policy in the near future), you can configure a package
in several ways:
1. Just run the config script. (looks similar to make config)
2. Run a config program on console. (looks similar to make menuconfig)
3. Run a config program on X. (looks similar to make xconfig)
4. Just copy the config from another system. (no user interactions)
All packages that don't use bash scripts could not be configured via
menuconfig or xconfig style.
May the Source be with you.
Goswin
PS: One just doesn't write scripts in csh. :)
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