Echo

[Kenneth Almquist]

> How many people had to rename their `print' programs when
> they got ksh?  Why in the world was such a commonly-used
> command name taken by ksh?
>      Steve

The name `test' hasn't worked out so well either.  The basic problem is
that the set of valid command names in UNIX is a flat name space which
lots of people change without much in the way of central coordination.
The problem seems to be worse with shell builtins, though, because the
shell builtins are checked for before PATH is searched.  I've been thinking
of adding a `rename' command to allow shell builtins to be moved around.
This would allow people to say `rename test sdlkjfsdlfk' in their .profile
files to get rid of the test command in their login shells, but test would
still be around in subshells.  Another possibility is to allow the PATH
variable to include an entry for shell builtins.  Then a user's private
bin directory could appear in PATH before the shell builtins...
				Kenneth Almquist


P.S. Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about echo.