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The GNU textutil package (see ftp search engine or any prep mirror) contains 26 utilities for different purposes, all at least related to handling of 8-bit text, from the commandline or through scripts. This paper tries to set priorities regarding their usefulness in JOS or in Java, in general. Comments and additions to the paper are welcome.

The textutils can be divided in several groups:

• mainly used for text database handling (TDB),
• mainly used for text formatting (TF),
• checksumming tools,
• tools useful for development,
• tools often used from the CLI,
• other tools.

__Text Database Tools__

The use for text files as databases is tradition in Un*x but questionable in JOS. The implementation of TDB tools is not high priority.

__Text Formatting Tools__

With HTML the minimum, and XML the optimal choice for all documents in JOS, there is no need for ASCII text formatting. Not needed.

__Checksumming Tools__

MD5 may be slower than simpler checksum programs but it is cryptographically secure and thus should be preferred. A shasum would be an idea, and the original cksum(1) might provide both a CRC-32 and a fast Adler CRC. High priority. The 16bit sum(1) should be tossed.

__Development Tools__

expand(1), unexpand(1), nl(1) might be useful for development. Medium priority.

__Often used tools__

wc(1), cat(1), head(1), split(1), tail(1) are used often from the CLI, by me anyway. High priority.

__Others__

There are some tools that are not used often but might make interesting beans, like fold(1) and tr(1). Totally unneeded are ansi2knr(1), od(1), system(1).

This leads to the following priorities:

• ansi2knr - C stuff, null
• cat - needed for CLI and scripts, high
• cksum - use Java CRC32 and Adler32, high
• comm - TDB, not needed, low
• csplit - TDB, not needed, low
• cut - TDB, not needed, low
• expand - needed for development, medium
• fmt - TF, use HTML/XML, null
• fold - maybe a useful bean, medium
• head - often used in CLI, high
• join - TDB, not needed, low
• md5sum - needed, high
• nl - needed for development, medium
• od - deprecated, use hexdump(1), null
• paste - TDB, not needed, low
• pr - TF, use HTML/XML, null
• sort - TDB, not needed, low
• split - needed, high
• sum - not needed, null
• system - huh, what for?, null
• tac - TDB, not needed, low
• tail - often used in CLI, high
• tr - maybe a useful bean, low
• unexpand - needed for development, medium
• uniq - TDB, not needed, low
• wc - implemented

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