[Gnu-arch-users] Re: Tla spork

[Tom Lord]

    > From: Matthew Dempsky <address@hidden>

    > Miles Bader <address@hidden> writes:

    > > BTW, how about an "ARCH_HAT" environment variable?  Could be very handy
    > > for scripting.

    > I had actually thought about that as an alternative to my-default-hat,
    > but I haven't fully thought it out yet to see if it's a good idea or
    > not.  (I can't see anything wrong with it, and if no one else does
    > then I'll hack something up.)

IMO, environment variable parameter passing is almost never the right
thing: it's too easy for it to go wrong (e.g., passing an environment
parameter accidentally).

It's better to get as far as we can without such a mechanism, via
persistent (per-user, per-tree, etc.) defaults and customizable
namespace-pattern-based rules and the like.

-t