Re: [Rosegarden-user] cvs makes me want to throw my computer out the window

[Steve C. <ste...@li...>]

> How about almost every single unix command line tool under the sun ?
> That's
> standard behavior : success is silent, error yields a message, just check
> the
> return code.

There is a world beyond return values.

I could have been clearer.

I don't know of any other program which, after requesting and accepting a
password, prints nothing but a <CRLF> to stdout, leaving the shell to return
to the standard prompt.

Not scp:

bash-2.05b$ scp test steve@poxy:~/.
steve@poxy's password:
test                                          100%    0     0.0KB/s   --:--
ETA
bash-2.05b$

Not fetch:

su-2.05b# fetch http://crashy/sssh/
Authentication required for <http://crashy:80/>!
Login: mp3
Password:
Receiving fetch.out (46 bytes): 100%
46 bytes transferred in 0.0 seconds (74.62 kBps)
su-2.05b#

Certainly not ftp:

bash-2.05b$ ftp ftp://mp3@poxy/test
Connected to poxy.
220 poxy ftpd ready ...
331 Password required for mp3.
Password:
230 User mp3 logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
200 Type set to I.
local: test remote: test
500 'EPSV': command not understood.
227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,0,1,19,139).
150 Opening data connection for test (0 bytes).
0 0.00 KB/s
226 File sent ok.
221 Bye Bye ...
bash-2.05b$


I wouldn't run out of examples any time soon, if I were inclined to go on.

But cvs feels no need to print anything to stdout after accepting your
password:

splazo@crashy$ 
cvs -d:pserver:ano...@cv...:/cvsroot/rosegarden login
Logging in to :pserver:ano...@cv...:2401/cvsroot/rosegarden
CVS password:
splazo@crashy$

This behavior is unusual and not very friendly.

cvs is just connecting to a resource over the network, same as the examples
above, but it fails to conform the the seemingly universal convention of
printing something to stdout after verifying a password. This is an example
of gratuitous poor design, imho.

I'm with the monkeys on acid theory of cvs.