[NTLUG:Discuss] Korn Shell

[Christopher Browne]

On Sun, 30 Jul 2000 14:46:18 EST, the world broke into rejoicing as
Kevin Brannen <kbrannen at gte.net>  said:
> cbbrowne at dantzig.brownes.org wrote:
> > 
> > On Sat, 29 Jul 2000 23:47:23 EST, the world broke into rejoicing as
> > Chris Cox <cjcox at acm.org>  said:
> > > Christopher Browne wrote:
> > > >
> > > ...
> > > > Doesn't it include Korn Shell?  I thought that /bin/ksh had gotten pret
ty
> > > > ubiquitous by now, and it's a fair bit more functional than Original
> > > > Bourne Shell.
> > 
> > If it's ubiquitous on anything for which service contracts are still
> > available, that's good enough for me.  :-)
> 
> And if it's not there, you can download the source and put it there yourself.
 
> I think I got it from the AT&T site, IIRC (I can't seem to find a reference i
n
> the README, but surely a good search engine could find it).
> 
> > Yes, but I seem to recall David Korn indicating that the one used on NT
> > isn't very good.  [I also seem to recall this implementation being the
> > MKS one, which is disappointing, because I knew some of the MKS folks,
> > and would regard them as being _pretty good_ in implementing Unix
> > functionality on all sorts of platforms...]
> > --
> 
> I remember a story coming out some time back about a MS person describing the
y
> had a KSH implementation and how good it was, at some conference.  Then a guy
> in the back of the room stood up and started disagreeing with him on how it
> wasn't implemented very well, had some feature wrong, etc.  The obvious
> happened and it escalated.  Finally, a person went up to the guy on the stage
> and pointed out to him that the person at the back of the room that he was
> arguing with was David Korn (who did know what he was talking about). 
> [Supposedly it's a real story.]

Yes, it has been quoted in enough moderately credible places that it
_does_ appear likely that it is true.

<LI><a href="http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix-nt98/ntnix.html">USENIX ;login: - NTnix 98... You Are There</a>
<LI><a href="http://ricardo.ecn.wfu.edu/~plug/mail_archive/9808/0155.html">plug.9808: A must-read for all who appreciate microsoft</a>
<LI><a href="http://boudicca.tux.org/mhonarc/ma-linux/1998/1998-Aug/0808.html">Mid-Atlantic Linux Mailing Lists, Archives by Month: (fwd) FWD: MS</a>

Apparently my recollection was right; it _was_ MKS's tool set that David
Korn was rather critical of...
--
cbbrowne at hex.net - <http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/linux.html>
"Using Java  as a general purpose application  development language is
like  going big  game  hunting  armed with  Nerf  weapons." 
-- Author Unknown