From: dejesus@pluto.nwc.navy.mil (Francisco X DeJesus) Subject: Re: Safety Belt / SLS Date: 22 Jan 1993 23:57:28 GMT
In article <1993Jan22.150050.23151@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> ruhtra@turing.toronto.edu (Arthur Tateishi) writes:
>In article <ePaRXB4w165w@kf8nh.wariat.org> kf8nh@kf8nh.wariat.org (Brandon S. Allbery) writes:
>>This and several other quotes I recall but didn't save basically say "don't
>>bother with any safety features, with Unix you're SUPPOSED to jump out of
>>the plane without a parachute". Which is the "hackers-only" attitude that
[...]
>Linux is a eunuches and the original design philosophies should stay.
>Otherwise, you will end up alienating the people who got you this far.
>The standard, flush-the-keyboard-buffer-and-ask-'Are you sure' of DOS
>is not a common occurence in unix.
In unix, this is accomplished by asking the root password before you are
allowed to trash the system. Because of this, Unix commands don't usually
double-check everything - they work under the assumtion that "if this
user is root, he must have a good reason to do that". DOS (and MacOS/Win/etc)
evolved differently because every user has the equivalent of root. Therefore
the "are you sure?" message has to be included in those commands that could
be potentially dangerous.
The big problem comes when people get used to having the machine/program
ask them "are you sure?" about every little thing, then they move on to
a new system (like Unix) which assumes that the user knows what he/she is
doing (!). It's like learning to drive a car with someone sitting besides
you telling you what to do, and then wondering why the car didn't say
anything when you were driving it at 110mph when you were by yourself.
>I repeat, sanity checks do belong in system programs but I feel
>aborting unless there is a force(-f) option flag is the way to
>go.
I agree. I don't consider myself as someone with a "hacker's only" attitude,
but I do not appreciate having programs written with the assumption that
"all users are stupid" either. The best programs are the ones that give you
the option to tell it how comfortable you are with the system, and act
accordingly. People must also remember the difference of being a regular
user and root in Unix, and act accordingly as well...
--
Francisco X DeJesus ----- S A I C ----- dejesus@chinalake.navy.mil
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* disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine. Typos and errors are yours *
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