Why being conservative in software is stupid.
Posted by David Morton Fri, 01 Sep 2006 00:47:00 GMT
A common command I use in system administration istail -f *
This views multiple files and reports changes… it lets me watch the logfiles of several programs at once. I’ve been using this for as long as I can remember on Linux, certainly back in 1997 at least.
On bsd systems, including the new OS X, I get this:
tail -f * tail: -f option only appropriate for a single file
The typical argument is that they are conservative with features, and thus have less bugs. In my opinion though, software that doesn’t do what I expect from almost 10 years of use… is buggy.
It’s also similar to a situation developing in the table saw business. A new “feature” available in table saws can cause the saw to retract suddenly when a finger makes contact with the blade. The table saw industry is fighting, claming possible liability if it doesn’t work as well as it claims.
Hmm, the new feature might save a hand. Is it worth it to include this feature, even if it might not be perfect? I’d prefer to have it myself; and it starts to make saws that don’t include it look dangerous and “buggy”.
Let’s worry about bugs when needed, but please, make my tools work like I expect.