[clug] Going from 1 to 100 lines of ls wrapping script

[steve jenkin]

Hal Ashburner wrote on 27/11/13 11:09 PM:
> I'm not sure we can really argue /bin/ls as delivered by gnu
> coreutils has minimalism as guiding factor in the presence of -D or
> --dired "generate output designed for Emacs' dired mode."
> 
> 
> /bin/ls does 4 things, it selects (give it a directory argument),
> it sorts, it does some minimal filtering (eg -a)  and formats
> output (-l --color, -Q, -F etc etc.). Mostly that is pretty
> convenient for anything ordinary I'd want to do.

Hal,

great post, thanks for taking time to write it up.

I agree, GNU adopted the Microsoft approach of "More is Better".
No way can coreutils be called 'minimalist'.

As you say, 'ls' does many things, well beyond the original concept.
Importantly, things like colouring, I assert, can't be separated.

Thanks again for the conversation. Love that you had Pike sign your
copy of PP. He can be an arrogant prat at times, but he's super smart
and has a very wry sense of humour (look up his claim of an Olympic
silver medal in archery - for the year the USA didn't compete, but
he's Canadian, IIRC.)

cheers
steve

-- 
Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
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