On Wed, May 10, 2017 at 6:06 PM, Desirée Zahradnicek <[email protected]> wrote: > It's true that this functionality can be achieved very easily with a > simple script, but the point is that it being so useful it's a letdown > that it isn't incorporated already, and so people that needs it have > to go creating/googling a solution. I know it's much more work to have > it built in, and that as with all modifications there's always the > risk of breaking something, but on the plus side I'll be the one doing > the work, and as it adds an optional functionality it's not expected > to cause trouble if not used.
Consider software bloat. If you can fulfill the requirement with a 2-line script, then perhaps it's not something that *needs* to be implemented in the tail utility. "Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface." -- Doug McIlroy
