grep replacement

[der Mouse]

In article <8167 at ncoast.UUCP>, allbery at ncoast.UUCP (Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
> As quoted from <5826 at umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> by randy at umn-cs.cs.umn.edu (Randy Orrison):
>> In article <7962 at alice.UUCP> andrew at alice.UUCP writes:
[ various things, originally about context grep.  But when replying,
  ++Brandon (do you still use that name, Brandon?) says.... ]
> (My /dev/stdin complaint earlier was [...] aimed at the person who
> informed the entire Usenet that "hey, I posted a /dev/stdin driver
> source for 4.2BSD, so not a one of you has any reason not to be
> running it".  In other words, the usual 4.xBSD-source elitism.)

That person was Chris Torek, but if he'd been a bit slower it could
well have been me.  At least he didn't say it as abrasively as your
summary does.

However, if you check back and look at the original postings on this
issue, the /dev/stdin point was first brought up as follows:

> 22) support a filename of - to mean standard input.
> 	a unix without /dev/stdin is largely bogus but as a sop to the poor
> 	barstards having to work on BSD, gre will support -
> 	as stdin (at least for a while).

(This over Andrew Hume's signature.  He was explaining what features
gre would support.)

With phrasing like that, I can hardly blame Chris for rising to the
defense of his driver.  And note the "BSD" phrase: that's the context
in which Chris said there was no excuse for complaining about not
having /dev/stdin.  And in that context, I agree with him.

And there's no call for complaints about source elitism.  My /dev/stdin
driver can be added to a binary distribution; surely Chris' can too.

(Andrew, there's no call to be so insulting.  Lots (most?) of us who
use BSD don't think of ourselves as "poor barstards[sic]" who "have" to
work on BSD.  There are two SysV-based machines here I can use whenever
I feel like it; I find it extremely painful to try to do anything on
them.  But you generally don't find me talking about "poor bastards who
have to work on SysV", and you most certainly won't find me saying so
in my postings to the entire net.)

					der Mouse

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