multiple gettys, why use them?

[Jim Rosenberg]

In article <765 at rush.cts.com> bob at rush.cts.com (Bob Ames) writes:
>Why all this talk of multiple gettys?  I've never used them.
>What's wrong with 'Other Users' in the Office?  The only people
>that I can think of who would want multiple gettys are those who don't
>use 'Office' and therefore can't do 'Other Users'.  Although
>those persons could always use 'su - user' to change users...  I'll bet that
>this, accompanied by a 'windy -b' would give you multiple windows...

I can't speak for anyone else, but as a certified card-carrying mutiple-getty
man let me relate some of the reasons why I like them.  Those of a religious
bent could argue that we're all init's children -- or more remote descendents
-- so what difference does the whole thing make anyway.  There's something to
this.  I am indeed one of those folks who *NEVER* goes into the Office.
Everything I want can be accessed more easily from the shell, thank you.  I
can't even count how many months since I've gone into the Office.  So why
should I have an Office process hanging around as the ancestor of *all* of my
shells???  Not to mention the fact that this [to me] useless process *CONSUMES
AN EXTRA WINDOW*!

In order to get multiple shells from the Office one has to do something
special for each shell.  With multiple gettys all one has to do is log in.  On
each window, if you foul up your terminal settings all you have to do is log
out and log back in again and woila, you have your screen fixed up completely.
Now admittedly this can be fixed with windy and stty sane echoe and a few
other things -- one or two of which I always seem to forget -- but it sure is
easy when all you have to do is log out and log back in again.  In a similar
vein, with multiple gettys I am *sure* each shell is running in its own
process group.  With multiple shells from the Office I'm not sure.  (Someone
wanna comment on this?)

I do have some remote users who dial in over the modem.  How easy to test
their logins by just logging in as them with their initial password on one of
the windows.


Now what are the disadvantages??  They all seem to relate to getlogin()
problems (based on analysis by other folks posted here.)  Those problems
haven't bugged me one bit -- but they could bother other people.  I don't
really feel personally insulted by not getting the envelope icon when I get
mail, I don't run shell scripts that depend on correct behavior by who.  I use
the machine mainly to support C software development, and multiple vi's and
shells and makes and all those other things work just fine with multiple
gettys.  I simply find it a simpler approach!

Just for the record, I am *not* bigoted against PARC-style user interfaces; I
find myself using the Mac for more and more things and admire that style of
user interface enormously -- when done right.  The User Agent is about as far
from implementing PARCish concepts as a blue whale is from implementing
vertical takeoff and landing.

Are multiple gettys right for you???  **TRY THEM AND SEE!!**  Each to his own
(or as they say in France, chalk one awesome goo!)
-- 
 Jim Rosenberg
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