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On 23/06/10 21:25, Simon Waters wrote: > tom brough wrote: >> >> Someone told me recently that as little as 25% of the functionality of >> an application is ever used. Is anyone aware of any references to >> research in this area that I can follow up as I am reluctant to use >> "word of mouth" statistics without some references to sources. > GNU "ls" has about 56 command line arguments, and there are at least 26 > I've never used in the 25 years or so I've been using it. I guess for > command line junkies which options are used might generate some sort of > objective measure. Although does it really matter if you've never done > "ls --version" since the code is there for the one time you actually > need to find this out. I'd have used a lot fewer if I'd code more script > in Perl than Bash/Korn/Bourne over the years - does that make "ls" less > good in some way? > > Thanks Simon, I had realised that it was a "how long is a piece of string?" type question. Apologies because I forgot to frame it in the context of costs of those unused functions. From your above analysis it would seem that ls is 50% redundant (from your vast experience) however the point is that if you paid next to nothing to use your ls command (which I assume is correct) 50% of nothing = nothing ... however with proprietary software 50% of significant cost = 50% of significant cost. Thanks as always for your no nonsense reply.... I am really hoping to find some "white paper" that explores the value of software especially in the context of Enterprise Licensing Agreements. I believe that there is a strong case to argue that such licenses actually hide a multitude of "sins" in terms of unused functionality bundled in as a "sweetener" that is never used in the license's lifespan. However, (like you pointed out) I really need some proof not anecdotes. Tom. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html