Well, basically we believe that introducing functions that are inherently importable by being heavily influenced by e.g. UNIX intrinsics (fork would be a prime example of this) _can_ hurt the language, by making Pike programs less portable. So we are reluctant to have such functions if the actual high level operation (the goal, rather than the means) associated with the function can be reasonably simply accomplished in some other way.
/ Marcus Comstedt (ACROSS) (Hail Ilpalazzo!)
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2002-09-03 22:57: Subject: argv[0]?
I guess I'm just not the one who should speak up - I never was good at talking with people, so screw it. To sum up - I just don't understand what a fucking harm can a function, module, class whatever do just by existing, that's it. If a feature doesn't bother anybody, and it pleases somebody else, is useful for them - it's enough of a reason for me to implement it. But I guess I'm just a dumbfuck.
/ Marek Habersack (Grendel)