[TUHS] [tuhs] The Unix shell: a 50-year view

In this week's BSDNow.tv podcast, available at https://www.bsdnow.tv/409 there is a story about a new conference paper on the Unix shell. The paper is available at Unix shell programming: the next 50 years HotOS '21: Workshop on Hot Topics in Operating Systems, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1 June, 2021--3 June, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1145/3458336.3465294 The tone is overall negative, though they do say nice things about Doug McIlroy and Steve Johnson, and they offer ideas about improvements. List readers will have their own views of the paper. My own is that, despite its dark corners, the Bourne shell has served us extraordinarily well, and I have been writing in it daily for decades without being particularly bothered by the many issues raised by the paper's authors. Having dealt with so-called command shells on numerous other operating systems, at least the Unix shells rarely get in my way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Nelson H. F. Beebe Tel: +1 801 581 5254 - - University of Utah FAX: +1 801 581 4148 - - Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB Internet e-mail: beebe(a)math.utah.edu - - 155 S 1400 E RM 233 beebe(a)acm.org beebe(a)computer.org - - Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------