[CentOS] Real sh? Or other efficient shell for non-interactive scripts

Mon Apr 27 16:41:06 UTC 2015
Warren Young <wyml at etr-usa.com>

On Apr 27, 2015, at 10:10 AM, Joerg Schilling <Joerg.Schilling at fokus.fraunhofer.de> wrote:
> 
> Warren Young <wyml at etr-usa.com> wrote:
> 
>> I was referring to the summary on the SourceForge page, where you just list the contents of the package without explaining why one would want to download it.
> 
> I thought I don't need to make advertizing for well known software.

I first learned of its existence last week, and then only by coincidence to the present discussion.

I immediately disregarded it for the reasons I’ve already given.

If it wasn’t for this thread, I’d still be ignorant of the reasons why I should care about the existence of Schily Tools.

> the developes page cannot contain much information

SourceForge gives you a way to link to a page on another site.

> I prefer to code than to write advertizing.

Well, there’s your diagnosis, then.  Successful software requires advertising, whether F/OSS or not.

The original Bourne shell was advertised through the pages of CACM, in books, etc.  A search for “Schilling” on linuxjournal.com turns up nothing except for some references to cdrecord.

So, why do you expect that I should have stumbled across Schily Tools before now?

>> If you tell me that I can download ?bsh?, I have no idea why I want bsh based solely on its name.  If you tell me that I can download ?od?, I reply that I already have a functioning version of od, thank you very much. :)
> 
> Bsh is mainly in schily tools to show people how the first shell with an 
> interactive editable history did look like. Bsh != Bourne Shell.

Yes, I realize that osh is closer to the original Bourne shell.  My point is that you can’t expect people to just know, without having been told, why they want bsh, or osh, bosh, or smake, or…

Most of these tools compete with tools that are already in CentOS.  If you want people to use these instead, you’re not going to persuade many people with a tarball.

As for the tools that do not have equivalents in CentOS, the file name is not an explanation.

You can’t expect people to just blindly download the tarball, build it, install it, and then start reading man pages.  You have to entice people first.

This thread is accomplishing that to some extent.  I just think your time would be better spent writing such thoughts up on a web page somewhere, then linking to that from the SourceForge page.  You will reach many more people that way.

>> 4. CDDL annoys a lot of people.
> 
> The CDDL does not annoy people, this is just a fairy tale from some OSS enemies.

The following irritates me, I am a “people,” and I am not an OSS enemy:

  http://zfsonlinux.org/faq.html#WhatAboutTheLicensingIssue

> BTW: I am of course not against ash, I just support the Bourne Shell.

Like it or not, your shells are in competition against all the other shells that became available earlier than yours.  There is only so much free time in the world.  You can’t expect people to stop using something they’re already successfully using without some amount of persuasion.