[Gnu-arch-users] Re: more feature request reminders

[Miles Bader]

Dustin Sallings <address@hidden> writes:
>       I'm not sure I like the command alias thing.  Would it not be better 
> to have standard commands and perhaps an alias mechanism that people 
> can use to plug in their own aliases?

It depends -- there are some aliases which are arguably silly and mere
historical detritus, but others usefully capture common preferences.

I think common/cmtrev is an example of the former, and that cmtrev
should eventually go away.  However I think something like move/mv is in
fact useful -- it gives you one very-obvious name, and one name that
corresponds to the unix command, and so has mnemonic value for many
people (but crucially, not all).

> It seems to me that reducing the vocabulary we have to use when
> talking about tla would benefit us.  For example, it was not obvious
> to me that default-tag does the same thing as explicit-default.

I think this is an example of a bad alias, but it doesn't follow that all
aliases are bad.

It's certainly on my personal todo list to try to stomp out some of the
sillier aliases.

-miles
-- 
"I distrust a research person who is always obviously busy on a task."
   --Robert Frosch, VP, GM Research