Re: bug-bash Digest, Vol 237, Issue 30

[Chet Ramey]

On 8/28/22 1:17 PM, Yair Lenga wrote:
> Yes, you are correct - (most/all of) of those examples "K&R".
>
> However, given bash's important role in modern computing - isn't it time to
> take advantage of new language features ? this can make code more readable,
> efficient and reliable.

There's no actual evidence for this assertion.

> I doubt that
> many users are trying to install a new bash in a system that was
> built/configured 15 years ago.

You might be surprised. I have corresponded with folks who maintain and
distribute 4.3 BSD systems and want to use bash on them. (There are many
bigger problems with that than using prototypes in source code, without a
doubt.)

The oldest I've ever personally built a `modern' bash version on is
Openstep 4.2, and the most recent version I've built there is 5.0.2. That's
not nearly as big a headache as something like 4.3 BSD.


> Many Java/python/C++ projects that want to move forward do it as part of
> the "major" release, in which they indicate Java 7 (or java java 8) support
> will be phased out. Same for C++ and python.

Bash has a different set of dependencies.

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/