On 4/14/19 9:40 PM, Paul Wise wrote: >> The tool you have is the exit status of the last command. >> From that perspective, there's no difference. > > From the perspective of the user of a shell prompt there is a difference.
I've been thinking about this. The user at a shell prompt is the only one
who knows exactly what has happened. He knows whether or not the last
command contained a syntax error: he's seen the error message. She is the
only one who knows whether or not she typed ^C, or ^C^C, or ^C RET. He
knows whether or not he suspended the last running job. Why take so much
effort to (imperfectly) figure out and display things you already know?
--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU c...@case.edu http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/
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