[408] in athena10

home help back first fref pref prev next nref lref last post

Re: Shell prompt (was Re: Adding software "to the release")

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jonathan Reed)
Mon Aug 11 16:02:31 2008

Cc: William Cattey <wdc@mit.edu>, Greg Hudson <ghudson@mit.edu>,
   athena10@mit.edu
Message-Id: <92926812-D044-4F1A-A26B-9126AA94FE5B@mit.edu>
From: Jonathan Reed <jdreed@MIT.EDU>
To: Kenneth Arnold <kcarnold@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <48A08FC4.3000708@mit.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v919.2)
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:01:45 -0400

> 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?

We already tell users how to switch to bash (using a moira-aware  
chsh).  For Athena 10, I will remove references to it being  
unsupported (it will remain unsupported for Athena 9).

I don't think we should be in the business of evangelizing for a  
specific shell, nor do I think we should be lobbying existing users to  
transition from one shell to another.  Users who care even a little  
bit will undoubtedly ask us how to switch to the shell of their  
choice, but for everyone else, we will continue to support tcsh (and  
will have to do so for at least 4 more years, if not longer).  Athena  
10 is going to drastically change the way our support model works  
anyway, and I'd like to keep any peripheral changes to a minimum.

-Jon

home help back first fref pref prev next nref lref last post