Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!de-l.enfer-du-nord.net!feeder1.enfer-du-nord.net!feeder.news-service.com!cyclone01.ams2.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!npeersf01.ams.highwinds-media.com!newsfe12.ams2.POSTED!00000000!not-for-mail From: Jonathan de Boyne Pollard User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.2.17) Gecko/20110414 Thunderbird/3.1.10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp,comp.lang.python,alt.usage.english,comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: English Idiom in Unix: Directory Recursively References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: Lines: 11 NNTP-Posting-Host: 86.20.254.174 X-Complaints-To: http://netreport.virginmedia.com X-Trace: newsfe12.ams2 1305878763 86.20.254.174 (Fri, 20 May 2011 08:06:03 UTC) NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 08:06:03 UTC Organization: virginmedia.com Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 08:10:45 +0100 Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.lisp:3575 comp.lang.python:5838 comp.unix.programmer:627 > I think what happens is that the “recursive” has become a idiom associated with directory to such a degree that the unix people don't know what the fuck they are talking about. They just simply use the word to go with directory whever they mean the whole directory. > > In the emacs case: “Recursive delete of xx? (y or n) ”, what could it possibly mean by the word “recursive” there? Like, it might delete the > directory but not delete all files in it? It might *try* to delete the directory but not any of its contents, yes. If such functionality is not offered, then putting the word in the user interface is redundant, and possibly not the best way to warn the user of potentially a massive loss of files and directories. But the algorithm employed is indeed recursive.