SURVEY: Should fd 3 be /dev/tty?

[Dan Bernstein]

By standard UNIX convention since the olden days, file descriptor
0 has been standard input, 1 output, and 2 error. This informal
survey, lasting until May 1, is on the following question:

  Should file descriptor 3 be, by new convention, /dev/tty?

Send responses, without rewriting the subject line please, to
me at bernsten at phoenix.princeton.edu. I'll summarize in May.

I'm not going to spend a hundred lines now giving arguments for
and against, since I'll do that in any case when I summarize. I
must note, however, that by /dev/tty I mean the /dev/tty driver,
not the /dev/ttyxx driver; this makes an important difference
for dissociating oneself from the tty under BSD.

---Dan Bernstein, bernsten at phoenix.princeton.edu