inconsistency on read/execute permissions for shell procedures

[Henry Spencer]

> ... a simple solution would be to have the kernel hand the
> shell the file on standard input if --x access is permitted...

Unfortunately, this does not work if the shell file wants to read from
standard input, which many do.  It probably *would* be possible to devise
some sort of standard-file-descriptor convention along similar lines,
but then every interpreter would have to be prepared to accept input that
way.  Actually, this is a weakness even just with standard input; things
like awk are not prepared to read their programs from their input.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry