friendly messages

[Rahul Dhesi]

In article <1430 at X.UUCP> john at frog.UUCP (John Woods) writes:
>Then they showed an example of The New Wave, a four-line
>error message which took 3 lines to misdiagnose the problem, and reminded
>you that this was, in fact, an error.  Yup.  Just like VMS... :-)

Hmmm...I hope they don't take it too far.

TODAY (cryptic, confusing, not reassuring at all)

   $ xyz=test_symbol; export xyz
   $ sh
   $ ^D
   $

TOMORROW (warm, friendly, reassuring)

   $ xyz=test_symbol; export xyz
   %SHELL-I-SUPERSEDE, previous value of XYZ has been superseded
   %SHELL-I-EXPORT, of XYZ has been exported
   $ sh
   %SHELL-S-SPAWNED, process SHELL_002 spawned
   %SHELL-S-ATTACHED, terminal now attached to process SHELL_002
   $ ^D
     Process SHELL_002 logged out at 16-FEB-1989 11:11:16.41
   %SHELL-S-RETURNED, control returned to process SHELL_001
   $

I'm not kidding.  I actually did "define xyz test_symbol", "spawn", and
"logout" at the VMS prompt and saw roughly the above.

Here's what I would REALLY like to see:

     $ dir
     %DIR-Q-AREYOUSURE, you asked for a directory, are you sure [y/n]: y
     %DIR-Q-VERYSURE, you said yes, but are you REALLY sure [y/n]: y
     %DIR-Q-REALSURE, are you REALLY REALLY sure [y/n]: y
     %DIR-F-JUSTINCASE, no directory, say PRETTY_PLEASE
     $ dir/pretty_please
     %DIR-I-OHWELL, ok, well, if you insist
     %DIR-S-UASKED4IT, but we warn you, you did ask for it
     [ directory listing appears here]
     %DIR-I-DIRDONE, directory listing done, control returned to CLI
     %CLI-I-WHEW, *whew*, thought DIR was going to take over system
     $
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi
                    ARPA:  bsu-cs!dhesi at iuvax.cs.indiana.edu