On Aug 6, 2022, at 06:22, joerg van den hoff wrote: > `port search ksh' currently yields the following 4 korn shell packages: > > ksh @2020.0.0_1 (shells) > the KornShell UNIX shell and programming language (stable version) > > ksh-devel @20200125-g43d1853 (shells) > the KornShell UNIX shell and programming language (development version) > > ksh93 @93u+20120801_2 (shells) > the AT&T KornShell > > ksh93-devel @93u+m-1.0.0-beta.2 (shells) > continued development of the AT&T KornShell > > > in view of the current naming scheme (_and_ info string denoting it as > "stable version"), the unwary user very probably would wrongly conclude that > the first one, `ksh @2020.0.0_1', is the canonical "true" korn shell to > install. but it is not... > > I wonder if the package names (and descriptions) should not be somewhat > modified since the ksh93u+m project now has done it's first release with many > bug fixes relative to ksh93u+, and given the project's aim to just fix > existing bugs in 93u+, might be validly viewed as true fully compatible > successor to 93u+ (which ksh2020 most definitely is not). it also seems that > linux distros are partly already moving in that way (adopting 93u+m as > default ksh). > > so I would find it preferable to either denote ksh93@93u+20120801_2 (the last > official ksh release) or possibly already ksh93-devel@93u+m-1.0.1 as "ksh" > and/or to rename the others to `ksh2020` (which identifies that (abandoned) > project to those who care). > > not a big deal but I think it would help to avoid possible confusion.
Yes... ksh and ksh-devel were added when what you now call ksh2020 was under development and was supposed to be the future of ksh93. Since ksh93 hadn't been able to build since OS X Mavericks I was happy to have a replacement that did build, so I deleted ksh93. Later, the ksh2020 development effort was rejected by upstream, the upstream repository was reverted, and new more nuanced development of ksh93 began in a fork. At that point I reintroduced the ksh93 port and added the ksh93-devel port. I'm inclined to remove the ksh and ksh-devel ports (that is, to mark them as replaced_by ksh93 for one year and then delete them) unless someone thinks there is still a need to preserve that branch. > ps: and if I recall correctly `KornShell' was meant to denote the language > while the shell's name is "Korn Shell" ;). Good grief! I remember pausing to consider whether to use "KornShell" or "Korn Shell" in the description but that interpretation never occurred to me. Do you have a link where that interpretation is described? The manpage says "ksh, rksh - KornShell, a standard/restricted command and programming language" which doesn't appear to make the distinction. The wikipedia page says "KornShell (ksh) is a Unix shell".
