Re: Clearsgts

[cld@xxxxxxxx (Carl Distefano)]

Reply to note from Harry Binswanger  Mon, 29 Nov
2004 15:01:55 -0500

Harry:

> What's the cost of the blunderbuss command?

First, speed. It takes a lot longer to clear 44 S/Gs than it does
to clear a few.

More important, logic and, for want of a better term, hygiene. A
program should leave the environment the way it found it. It's
illogical and potentially disruptive for a program to clear values
that it didn't set to begin with. If those values are in memory,
the working assumption has to be that another program left them
there for a purpose. When it goes looking for them and they're not
there, you have trouble.

When every program minds its own values and refrains from imposing
its values on other programs, the result is a more harmonious
society -- I mean, system. Right? Right.

--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx