On Tue, 29 Sep 2009, George Danchev wrote: > True. However, it makes no big difference whether people use (or > resp. abuse) file extensions to claim the language a program is > implemented in, or they do it within the base name. There are plenty > of apps starring with py* and perl*, (and we have them most for > years, which is not that different from *.py and *.pl) and I'd > hesitate to characterize their naming style as tasteless or non- > Unix way,
Both of these naming styles are annoying. Wasting characters in commands on non-useful information gets in the way of users doing what they want to do. If you're going to stick a command into a directory which is in PATH,[1] then it should be named as precisely and concisely as possible, while still being unique. If an executable encodes an interface which is widely used outside of Debian, then a compatibility symlink might still be in order, but otherwise, ditch the extension, submit a patch upstream,[2] and get on with life. [But whatever is done, don't spend too much time on it; if an upstream is doing this sort of thing, odds are there are other, more insidious things lurking, and it'd be a beter use (or waste!) of time trying to find them.] Don Armstrong 1: If this is some piddly executable in /usr/lib/foobar/blah.sh, then it doesn't really matter; the author could call it blah.sh.because.its.cool.nyatch because presumably no one is going to actually run the executable directly. 2: It's perfectly fine if its named blah.sh in the source, so long as it installs as blah on UNIX-y operating systems. -- "Ban cryptography! Yes. Let's also ban pencils, pens and paper, since criminals can use them to draw plans of the joint they are casing or even, god forbid, create one time pads to pass uncrackable codes to each other. Ban open spaces since criminals could use them to converse with each other out of earshot of the police. Let's ban flags since they could be used to pass secret messages in semaphore. In fact let's just ban all forms of verbal and non-verbal communication -- let's see those criminals make plans now!" http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
