Unix deficiencies/problems

[Chris Torek]

In article <19472 at adm.BRL.MIL> Kemp at DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes:
[more `Unix is deficient' blather]
-Say there are a few of my friends' directories and files that are of
-general interest:
-
- /home/orion/jsmith/projectA/speech
- /home/magellan/tjones/lib/splib.a
-
-With logical names, I could define the first as "joe" and the second as
-"splib", and do things like:
-
- cd joe
- ls joe
- ar t splib
- cc myprog -lsplib


$ joe=/home/orion/jsmith/projectA/speech
$ splib=/home/magellan/tjones/lib/splib.a
$ cd $joe
$ ls $joe
$ ar t $splib
$ cc args -l$splib

-... Environment variables won't work unless you rewrite all your
-applications AND ALL UNIX APPLICATIONS to do a getenv before every
-open (figure the odds!).

That is not what they are for.  Environments are for *specific*
tasks---$PATH for executables, $TEXINPUTS for TeX macros, and so
forth.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris