[TUHS] Origins and life of the pg pager

[Theodore Y. Ts'o]

On Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 12:43:01AM +0200, Steffen Nurpmeso wrote:
>   #?0|kent:steffen$ pkginfo -o `command -v col`
>   Package     File
>   util-linux  usr/bin/col
>
> states
> 
>   /*
>    * This command is deprecated.  The utility is in maintenance mode,
>    * meaning we keep them in source tree for backward compatibility
>    * only.  Do not waste time making this command better, unless the
>    * fix is about security or other very critical issue.
>    *
>    * See Documentation/deprecated.txt for more information.
>    */

I'll note that the Austin Group / The Open Group marked those commands
as LEGACY[1] in the Single Unix Specification V2 in 1997:

   The utilities in the table below are marked LEGACY. Various factors
   may have contributed to the decision to class a utility
   LEGACY. Application writers should not use functionality marked
   LEGACY.

   If a migration path exists, advice is given to application
   developers regarding alternative means of obtaining similar
   functionality. This information may be found in the APPLICATION
   USAGE sections on the relevant pages.

   No requirement beyond that which was in effect at the time that
   these utilities were marked LEGACY shall be applied to these
   utilities.

   calendar cancel cc col cpio cu dircmp dis egrep fgrep line lint lpstat
   mail pack pcat pg spell sum tar unpack uulog uuname uupick uuto

[1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xcu/intro.html#tag_001_003_003

The quote from the Single Unix Specification: "No requirement beyond
that which was in effect at the time that these utilities were marked
LEGACY shall be applied to these utilities." is not that different
from "Do not waste time making this command better, unless the fix is
about security or other very critical issue."

And while I'm sure the Linux haters will be happy to try to blame
Linux for the decision to declare pg, col, et.al as "legacy", in 1997
The Open Group was hardly filled with Linux developers; '97 predates
IBM and Oracle declaring their support for Linux (1998), the
publication of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar (also 1998), the start of
the GNOME project (1999), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (first released
in 2002), and Ubuntu Linux (2004).

						- Ted
						
P.S.  Of course, the fact that the The Open Group tried to convince
the world to stop using tar and cpio in favor to pax seems to be a
strong indication that they forgot the lesson of King Canute.  :-)