[406] in athena10
Re: Shell prompt (was Re: Adding software "to the release")
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kenneth Arnold)
Mon Aug 11 15:16:03 2008
Message-ID: <48A08FC4.3000708@mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:15:16 -0400
From: Kenneth Arnold <kcarnold@MIT.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: William Cattey <wdc@mit.edu>
CC: Greg Hudson <ghudson@mit.edu>, athena10@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <6628B23A-8415-4A5A-8123-E847768A5B4C@mit.edu>
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In my limited experience, it seems that most new users will fall in one
of two categories:
1. Hardly ever used Linux, so bash and tcsh are equally new and
confusing.
2. Used Linux (or OS X Terminal) before and are comfortable with bash.
tcsh in fall and bash in spring annoys type-1 users twice and type-2
users once.
bash now annoys neither type, neither time.
So it's unfortunate if (as ghudson's reply suggests) the decision was
already finalized. Maybe a first-run question, "Do you want to switch to
bash now or later?" Or heavily promo the docs on how to switch shells?
It's a very minor issue in the big scheme of things, but if we can trade
two headaches for one, I think it's worth it. My opinion obviously
matters little, though. :)
-Ken
William Cattey wrote:
> Is this something we should consider for incoming students NOW, or do
> we need more lead time to do the work and push out the documentation?
>
> -Bill
>
> ----
>
> William Cattey
> Linux Platform Coordinator
> MIT Information Services & Technology
>
> N42-040M, 617-253-0140, wdc@mit.edu
> http://web.mit.edu/wdc/www/
>
>
> On Aug 11, 2008, at 1:27 PM, Greg Hudson wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 2008-08-05 at 00:34 -0400, Kenneth Charles Arnold wrote:
>>> (Finally an excuse to bring it up): The first prompt is far better than
>>> the second one. What will be the default prompt for ath10?
>>
>> For tcsh users, the default prompt will be "athena% ". For bash users,
>> "username@hostname:dir$ " or whatever the system default is.
>>
>> The current plan is to make bash the default shell for new users next
>> year. (Thinking about this, probably Jan 1 2009 is a good time to throw
>> the switch.)
>>
>>
>
