Repeating ourselves: the `echo` program

Over the next few months we'll be reading through a number of standard Unix utilities. This month: echo(1)!

We'll be doing a comparative analysis of several implementations of echo:

• OpenBSD: http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/src/bin/echo/echo.c?rev=1.7;content-type=text%2Fx-cvsweb-markup

• NetBSD: http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/bin/echo/echo.c?rev=1.15.16.1&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup (http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/src/bin/echo/echo.c?rev=1.15.16.1&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup-)

• FreeBSD: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/bin/echo/echo.c?rev=1.20.2.2;content-type=text%2Fplain (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/bin/echo/echo.c?rev=1.20.2.2;content-type=text%2Fplain-)

• GNU: http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/tree/src/echo.c

This should all take about three hours. Food and drinks will be provided by thoughtbot (http://thoughtbot.com).

About us:

This is a reading group for code. Our focus is the classics and tools we use every day. The inspiration is the shared metaphors and expressions we have in natural language due to common books (e.g. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Romeo and Juliet) and movies (e.g. Hackers, A Christmas Carol).