Re: status on $[arith] for eval arith vsl $((arith))??

[Maarten Billemont]

On 08 Apr 2012, at 21:30, Chet Ramey wrote:
> On 4/8/12 3:02 PM, Maarten Billemont wrote:
> 
>> Any particular reason for not removing old undocumented functionality, or is 
>> that mostly the nature of this beast - dragging along and maintaining 
>> ancient code for the sake of compatibility?=
> 
> Because, as Linda discovered, there is still working code out there using
> it.  Maybe we'll get to a point where it's all gone, but we're not there
> yet.


IMO, the working code out there that relies on $[...] either runs on older 
versions of bash, or if the sysadmin decided to upgrade bash, he can assume the 
responsibility to fix the code.  I suppose a deprecation route would make such 
a scenario least painful.  Though I don't think bash has ever taken this 
approach yet (removal of features), it will be unexpected and people will 
likely complain.  In the end one must decide between a lean code base and 
keeping the 1% happy to upgrade.

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