Echo

[Kenneth Almquist]

I've been implementing a public domain shell and I'm wondering what to
do about the echo builtin.  The System V echo command interprets a number
of escape sequences (e.g. \n for newline) which the BSD echo does not,
so I can...

1.  Implement the System V echo on the grounds that it will make it easier
    to run System V shell scripts.

2.  Implement the BSD echo on the grounds that it's the "right" approach
    (since the System V echo is useless if you want to echo an arbitrary
    string unchanged).

3.  Don't provide an echo builtin, so users get whatever echo command is
    installed in /bin.  This follows the principle of least surprise, but
    it makes shell scripts run slowly and does nothing for portability.

Any suggestions?  In particular I would like to know if any standards
organizations have addressed the semantics of echo.  Does anyone know
what the merged AT&T/SUN UNIX is going to do about echo?
				Kenneth Almquist