xstr, mkstr

[Eitan Adler]

On 3 July 2018 at 07:45, Rodney W. Grimes
<freebsd-rwg at pdx.rh.cn85.dnsmgr.net> wrote:
>> On 24 June 2018 at 02:51, Eitan Adler <lists at eitanadler.com> wrote:
>> > Why are these tools in base? As far as I could tell these tools are
>> > un-used in the build process and otherwise specialized tools. Is there
>> > any reason we still have them in the toolchain or in base?
>>
>> Anyone? They don't cause acute problems, but having specialized and
>> specific tools like this don't seem like they belong.
>
> What appears to be unused or specialized to one user can be
> very differeent to another.  It is best to keep an open mind
> that there are many very diverse users of BSD.

<snark>
I absolutely agree with you! I did not know much about their history,
beyond them being used in low-memory environments.
In fact, I agree with you so much so that I think that before doing
anything about them, I should email an appropriate list to find out
more about them. Perhaps arch@ is a good list? hackers@ might also be
good, but tends to have less of a reply-rate.
</snark>

> "As far as I can tell" needs to be a bit stronger,

Agreed. But before doing work we should first make sure that the work
will be productive.

>  have you
> removed them from the system and had an exp run done to make
> sure they are not used?

I have locally built a system without them and built several ports.
This is certainly not an exp-run, but want to hold off on filing for
an exp-run before this conversation about their usefulness is
complete.




-- 
Eitan Adler