Re: shell, arithmetic expansion and integer constants

[Chet Ramey <chet.ramey@xxxxxxxx>]

Roger Marquis wrote:

> Um no, Bourne is and always has been the standard Unix shell.  POSIX cannot
> change that nor should it.  Bourne is the one scripting language that has a
> common syntax across all popular Unix and Linux variants (with some
> bashisms added in non-compliant GNU implementations).  Any experienced
> systems administrator knows that common Bourne syntax, not POSIX Bourne
> syntax, is required for cross-platform compatibility (of install scripts
> and such).
"Bourne" doesn't really mean very much.  It usually means "the version of
sh on the systems I use and manage."

What version do you mean?  v7?  SVR2?  SVR3? 4? 4.2?  They're all
different, with different features and quirks.

The Posix standard has the advantage of consistency.

Chet
--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer

Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/