Re: when options conflict

[Tony Abou-Assaleh]

On Mon, 22 May 2006, Paul Eggert wrote:
> There are many, many places where the grep manual does not document
> accidental features of grep.  This is not necessarily a mistake, any
> more that it is a mistake that the C standard intentionally does not
> specify the exact value of the maximum 'int' value, or the exact order
> of evaluation of an expression.

The comparison is unfair since it is clearly specified somewhere (e.g.,
all C books that I read) that the size of int is implementation/platform
specific. Also, interested users have a way of finding the size of int and
maximum value (e.g., by looking at limits.h).

There is a big mess in the grep code. Some things work, some don't, and
for some we're not even sure how they should behave. I am with you that
the *mess*, or what you call accidental features, should not be
documented. But once we decide on a specific behaviour for grep, and it
makes its way to the source, and we're fairly convinced that it works,
then it should also be in the docs. Also, known bugs, experimental
features, and *undefined behaviours* should be included. Once there is
consensus that these docs should be here, I am confident that many on the
list will contribute.

Maybe we don't really disagree, just emphasize different aspects of the
same thing.

Cheers,

TAA

-----------------------------------------------------
Tony Abou-Assaleh
Lecturer, Computer Science Department
Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada, L2S 3A1
Office: MC J215
Tel:    +1(905)688-5550 ext. 5243
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