i'd like to code: shell and make

[Alexander Kriegisch]

> * ash is in "bash replacement" class. It's big and complex.
>   Need to fix bugs and maybe even add a few more bashisms.
>   No wild hacking on it - it's too big and too complex,
>   and too important.

I may add that "big user base" means for instance, that several embedded
firmwares for routers like the AVM Fritz!Box series and T-Com Speedport
rely on BusyBox's ash. Firmware modification projects like Freetz
(http://www.freetz.org) replace the outdated BB with a current one.

I never thought of ash as a bash replacement, merely as a bash
predecessor which it historically is (feature-wise, too, I guess). I
think Denis just wanted to point out how mighty and complex ash is. I
believe making as a bit leaner and more maintainable without sacrificing
functionality would be welcome to most users, but is a non-trivial task.
I would recommend a test-driven approach, i.e. first write a lot of
tests (or port them from coreutils as suggested) and then step by step
refactor it, if you feel inclined to do that.

Just my 2 cents as a non-C programmer
--
Alexander Kriegisch