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This isn't just "I can set it to something else if I go out of my way", this is "systems provide well-documented and standardized methods for setting this param

This isn't just "I can set it to something else if I go out of my way", this is "systems provide well-documented and standardized methods for setting this parameter to something else, and there are some widely used programs using precisely this feature." It's not common but that's exactly what default parameters are for: uncommon-yet-valid use cases. Yet you seem to treat your opinion that this is an implicit contract as somehow sufficient for establishing that it's a contract, despite what I just mentioned indicating otherwise. What contract can you point to that mandates argv[0] be set to the program name?

mike_hock 4y ago
Established common practice. The egrep use case, btw., wouldn't deviate from that. In fact, it would rely on argv[0] being truthfully set to the sym/hard link's name.
- dataflow 4y ago
  Not every established common practice implies a contract to follow that practice. It also matters what the reason for that practice is, and whom it's even relevant to. Like just because most people take the highway when driving from SF to LA that doesn't mean you're breaching some sort of contract by opting to take a side road. There are two practices here. One is passing the program name to arg0. The other is never making some use of arg0. Both of these are established because they're the most convenient things to do by default, and because people rarely have a reason to deviate from them. That's it. Heck, if there was some contract to ignore arg0 then people wouldn't feel any contractual obligation to pass the program name to begin with, since it should be getting ignored anyway - that argument is pretty self defeating. Moreover, I think your position is effectively equivalent to saying "if you don't want a common practice to become a contract, then you must go out of your way and inconvenience yourself to deviate from that practice for absolutely no other reason than to make this very statement true", which is a rather bizarre (and inefficient) expectation from everyone around you.

mike_hock 4y ago

Established common practice. The egrep use case, btw., wouldn't deviate from that. In fact, it would rely on argv[0] being truthfully set to the sym/hard link's name.

dataflow 4y ago
Not every established common practice implies a contract to follow that practice. It also matters what the reason for that practice is, and whom it's even relevant to. Like just because most people take the highway when driving from SF to LA that doesn't mean you're breaching some sort of contract by opting to take a side road. There are two practices here. One is passing the program name to arg0. The other is never making some use of arg0. Both of these are established because they're the most convenient things to do by default, and because people rarely have a reason to deviate from them. That's it. Heck, if there was some contract to ignore arg0 then people wouldn't feel any contractual obligation to pass the program name to begin with, since it should be getting ignored anyway - that argument is pretty self defeating. Moreover, I think your position is effectively equivalent to saying "if you don't want a common practice to become a contract, then you must go out of your way and inconvenience yourself to deviate from that practice for absolutely no other reason than to make this very statement true", which is a rather bizarre (and inefficient) expectation from everyone around you.