Re: Questions about patch

[Gary Setter]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <address@hidden>
To: "Gary Setter" <address@hidden>
Cc: <address@hidden>; <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 2:16 PM
Subject: Re: Questions about patch


> > From: "Gary Setter" <address@hidden>
> > Cc: <address@hidden>,
> > <address@hidden>
> > Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 08:17:42 -0500
> >
> > Is the binary switch a good design? It seems to me that
> > consistently reading files as binary would be better. If the
user
> > is not all knowing (and I'm not) he can easily get himself in
> > trouble.
>
> A user who doesn't know better should not use --binary.
Without that
> switch, Patch can read original and patch files of both Unix
and DOS
> format, including the case that one of them is Unix while the
other
> DOS, and will produce patched files in the DOS format.  That is
good
> enough for DOS/Windows platforms.
>
> > Some versions of seek would hang if the file was not
> > opened as binary.
>
> Such fseek is broken, and should be replaced.  I wasn't talking
about
> such cases.

There was once a boy who inherited the kingdom when he was tiny.
He was raised by wise advisers in a fine palace. One day the boy
king announced he would travel the length of his land to lean for
himself what it was an who his people were. He had only walked a
day when he hurt his foot on a rock in the road. He had a fit and
ordered that all the roads in the kingdom be carpeted. His
advisers got together, they deliberated, and then asked for some
scraps of carpet, some thread and a needle. "Your highness," they
said "rather then trying to change the whole world, could you
wear these while walking?" And they gave the astonished king the
first shoes.

Maybe instead of expecting all the libraries and users to change
to make patch work, we should change patch so that it works with
things as they are now.

Btw, the default is not binary, which does not work. Patch has
users, not programmers. The principles of good program are not
suspended because the users at other times may write programs.