csh misconceptions

[lcc.bob%ucla-locus at sri-unix.UUCP]

From:            Bob English <lcc.bob at ucla-locus>

Face it, the only way to specify IN THE SCRIPT which interpreter
you want is to use "#! prog" on a BSD system.  Any other method
depends on the vagaries of the shell the user (NOT the
programmer) is running, and is out of the programmer's control.
If shell scripts always depend on the user's shell for
correctness, there is no way to write a reliable shell script
and still allow user specifiable shells.  Period.  And the
failure to provide some mechanism to do so is a serious
shortcoming in standard Unix.

--bob--

P.S. The mechanism to provide the #! interpretation gobbles up
about 50 lines of code in 4.1bsd.