Tool -flag considered harmful (was: grep replacement)

[George Seibel]

In article <4615 at vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com> barnett at steinmetz.ge.com (Bruce G. Barnett) writes:
[...]
]I am all for progress. Just remember, that there are tools used by the
]system, and tools used by humans. [...]

Well put.  When programmers at AT&T are making design decisions that may
affect the way hundreds of thousands of people interact with their computers
for years to come, I wonder who checks it out?   The wizard down the hall?
How many of you have ever tried to teach UNIX to a casual user?  How about
trying to *sell* UNIX in industrial environments where the amount of training
required to use an O/S is a major consideration?  Creeping featurism is bad,
tools are good, agreed.  But there comes a time when the tool philosophy
needs to bend a little.  Context in grep and diff is just such a case.

George Seibel, UCSF
seibel at cgl.ucsf.edu