ls holy wars

[Henry Spencer]

> Our TRS-80 Model 16 can NOT NOT NOT run a shell script ANYWHERE as fast as
> a C program.  ls | pr -t -5 takes FOREVER to run!   ...
> 
> Now before some well-meaning computer junkie tells me that we should get
> Vaxen, please look at the price tag on yours.
> 
> Now before you suggest piped stuff for ls or any other program where columnar
> output is COMMONLY USED to a terminal, remember that if DEC went out of busi-
> ness, the Unix community would live on through the 68000.  The business world
> cannot afford Vaxen!

Repeat after me:

	"There is no such thing as a free lunch."

We can't afford a VAX either.  But our lousy little 11/44 runs shell scripts
briskly.  Partly because we have a high-performance shell; partly because we
gritted our teeth, recited "you get what you pay for", and spent some money
on good disk drives.  Which are available for many, many 68000 boxes too.

It really should come as no surprise that you have to bend your software
out of shape if it has to run quickly on slow hardware.  This sort of nasty
pragmatic necessity should not be confused with fundamental principles of
good software design.

Actually, I have no objection to writing a C program that implements the
equivalent of "ls | pr -t -5"; it is a fairly common wish.  I'll probably
do it here someday.  But I won't call the result "ls", and it won't try
to guess where its output is headed and alter the output on that basis.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry