instability in Berkeley versus AT&T releases (absurdly long)

[x0705]

> > The only thing terrible about ls -C is that it ought to be the default for
> > CRTs. USG ls _requires_ the "-C" to get the multiple columns, which _is_
> > brain damaged.
> 
> I would sure get upset if when I ran "ls" in the long skinny window
> on my DMD, it didn't print the file names one per line.  You are
> making the same mistake that a lot of the more crufty BSD software
> has made, namely:  assuming an overly-restrictive model of how the
> software is to be used.

Actually, the SVR2 ls -C looks at the COLUMNS variable to find out how much
space is available, and adjusts the number of columns accordingly.
The 4.1BSD ls checked whether isatty(stdout), and set the output to single or
multi-column accordingly; I always hated that since I normally wanted
multi-column all the time.
-- 
## Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs