[bug-grep] Re: grep feature request: show column numbers

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 09:51:08AM +0000, Stephane Chazelas wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 06:12:03AM +1100, Martin Pool wrote:
> > I didn't realize GNU suddenly had a policy of strict minimalism. ;-)
> 
> Note that I replied but am in no way a GNU grep maintainer.

well, I'm the maintainer since February 2004, and the above comment
fits to my answers perfectly.  ;-)

> To my mind:
> grep -r --include --exclude
> is not grep's job.
> listing files is the job of another command (find, tw, shell).

My feelings are very near to this.  I definitely won't remove any of
the three options, when they are already in.
But I don't want to see that most of the funnctionality of find creeps
into grep.

> On the other hand, you may argue that as grep is more or less a
> subset of awk, what's the need for it anyway? I guess the answer
> is that as it's been designed to do a simple and only task, it
> can do it efficiently, but I guess it's less of an argument
> nowadays.

Yes, the efficiency isn't the reason these days.  I just try to keep
the traditional feeling what belongs where.

Happy hacking,
        Stepan