cdrtools - a tale of an incompatible author [LWN.net]

cdrtools - a tale of an incompatible author

Posted Aug 15, 2006 4:18 UTC (Tue) by kirkengaard (subscriber, #15022)
In reply to: cdrtools - a tale of an incompatible author by nix
Parent article: cdrtools - a tale of two licenses

And, however off-the-wall or b0rken, whatever some UNIX does (other than Linux) is more important. Joerg has demonstrated a remarkable capacity to try to serve every UNIX alive simultaneously, and so when Linux does something perfectly sensible, but not bound by the logic of every other UNIX in existence, Joerg tells us we're wrong, and uses his code as a bludgeon.

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cdrtools - a tale of an incompatible author

Posted Aug 15, 2006 9:07 UTC (Tue) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

For values of 'every other UNIX in existence' equal to 'Solaris and only Solaris', you're right. He tries to serve every other Unix in existence by a) writing an indirection layer to make them look like Solaris (which is fine), b) insisting that users use device-choice semantics appropriate only to old versions of Solaris (which is silly), and c) badgering everyone else to try to force them to be more like Solaris (which is annoying).

It's not as if cdrecord looks remotely like any other Solaris application in existence in command-line argument layout or in user interface. The whole thing is a triumph of NIH, from the, ahem, `unique' makefile system with its manifold annoyances through to the `unique' command line with *its* manifold annoyances (which make it amazingly hard to parse the output of from scripts: *another* way in which dvdrecord beats it).

cdrtools - a tale of an incompatible author

Posted Aug 18, 2006 13:32 UTC (Fri) by job (subscriber, #670) [Link]

His tar utility is lovely, my secret wish is that it ends up replacing GNU tar in a distant future, at least the features and file format compatibility.