Periodic confusion

[utzoo!decvax!duke!unc!dopey.smb]

More and more programs are accepting stand-alone periods as an EOF signal.
With all due respect, I think that's a bad idea; it makes it impossible
to actually send such lines -- i.e., editor scripts.  I assume that the
original motivation was to prevent folks from getting logged off when
they typed an extra CNTL-D when mail was slow; on Berkeley UNIX systems,
where csh-ers can 'set ignoreeof' and the mailer replies 'EOT', this
practice strikes me as harmful.  Comments?

		--Steve Bellovin

(I will now proceed to end this note with a CNTL-D, which isn't my usual
habit....)