Post #2130267

@regehr @malwareminigun @jpetazzo @aburka If I were looking at this from a historical analysis, I'd look at how things just stick around and become the norm, and mix in a bit of anthropology to see why there is a resistance to change about it, even when you know a better design is not only possible but beneficial. To keep on the crontab thing as an example, it has been around forever. And it was written at a time when computing resources were scarce. So you use line-oriented syntax with fields and the limited characters you can even type. This works, and then stays there. Sysadmins use it because they have to, but then Linux becomes a thing and suddenly everyone is a bit of a sysadmin. But nothing seems to come of it even after years of complaining about it. (I remember hearing about in the 90s.) This ignores anything about compatibility and such, but it's a start. I suspect there are similar threads for a bunch of things. Anyway, to me this could be a fascinating area of research.