Re: >= and <= for string comparison

[Chet Ramey]

On 1/19/23 9:10 AM, Peng Yu wrote:

> Given the fact that string comparisons are allowed by bash, anybody
> should legitimately use string comparisons less-then and greater-then
> if available. 

This is a gold-medal-winning leap in logic. Of course everyone can use a
feature if it's available. It doesn't say anything about a cost-benefit
analysis of a feature *you want someone else to implement for you*. You
actually have to convince someone else (more than likely me) to do the
work. How do you think this is advancing that? You can't rely on the
`obvious merit' of your proposal if you can't explain that.

> Even if I don't use it, can you prove that others will
> never need it, given there are many things that can be done with
> string comparisons? 

Did you really ask someone to prove a negative? And then try to use it as
an argument?

> If you can not prove it, then my specific
> applications really do not matter for the discussion of whether <= >=
> should be introduced.

See, that's backward. If you want someone to invest the time and effort in
implementation and maintenance, you want to at a minimum justify it in a
way that will convince that someone.

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/