Re: bc and dc -e/-f and Copyright

Hi Gavin,

Thanks for reaching out!

My primary concern is that `dc -e' returns to its previous auto-exit behavior. Any of the options you described would achieve that, and would be fine with me.

Thanks again,

Ravi (rpokala_at_) 

-----Original Message-----
From: Gavin Howard <gavin.d.howard_at_gmail.com>
Date: 2020-07-30, Thursday at 12:35
To: <jhb_at_freebsd.org>, <jrtc27_at_freebsd.org>, <bapt_at_freebsd.org>, <rpokala_at_freebsd.org>, <current_at_freebsd.org>, Stefan Esser <se_at_freebsd.org>
Subject: bc and dc -e/-f and Copyright

    Hello,

    My name is Gavin Howard, and I am the developer and maintainer of the
    new bc and dc implementation in -CURRENT. Stefan Eßer brought a
    discussion about my bc to my attention, and I would like to solve the
    problems.

    First, I will add some way to remove the printing of the copyright
    header at compile time, and FreeBSD should be able to take advantage
    of it as soon as I put out a new release, which should be within days
    after this discussion is settled.

    Second, there seems to be those who are unhappy with my decision to
    make bc and dc not exit when using the -e and -f options. While the
    behavior of my bc is what I personally need, I have a few options to
    change it back to what is expected:

    1. I could make it a compile-time selection. I don't like this option,
    to be honest.

    2. I could restore the expected behavior of -e and -f and change the
    environment variable to BC_EXPR_NO_EXIT (DC_EXPR_NO_EXIT) and reverse
    the logic. I could do this one, but Stefan mentioned to me that he
    would prefer less environment variables be used. I agree.

    3. I could restore the expected behavior of -e and -f and add -E and
    -F options that do the same thing but do not exit. I think I like this
    option the best. I am willing to change -E and -F to something else if
    that would be better.

    When I presented these options to Stefan, he suggested that I ask you
    all for your opinions. I am also willing to consider other options
    that you might think of.

    Thank you for your time.

    Gavin Howard