Revisions to What's the point of using OS tags?

replaced http://vi.stackexchange.com/ with https://vi.stackexchange.com/

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edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:51

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How do I save a file in a directory that does not yet exist?How do I save a file in a directory that does not yet exist?; we could use shell commands for this (mkdir -p), which are OS-specific.
How can I copy text to the system clipboard from Vim?How can I copy text to the system clipboard from Vim?; there are some small differences in how clipboards work on different systems.
What's the simplest way to strip trailing whitespace from all lines in a file?What's the simplest way to strip trailing whitespace from all lines in a file?; we could use sed.
How to generate random numbers?How to generate random numbers?; there are some OS-specific solutions, but many more non-OS specific.
How to replace tabs with spaces?How to replace tabs with spaces?; you can use expand and unexpand.
... etc.

How do I edit crontab files with Vim (I get the error: 'temp file must be edited in place')How do I edit crontab files with Vim (I get the error: 'temp file must be edited in place'); this is a specific problem with a specific error that only occurs on FreeBSD (and not Linux, for example)
How to edit content from the standard input?How to edit content from the standard input?; the question itself assumes UNIX concepts, and while these are also present on other systems (such as Windows), very few people use them in this manner (if it's even possible, not sure).
Can visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?; seems obvious, Windows doesn't have a copy-on-select clipboard.

How do I save a file in a directory that does not yet exist?; we could use shell commands for this (mkdir -p), which are OS-specific.
How can I copy text to the system clipboard from Vim?; there are some small differences in how clipboards work on different systems.
What's the simplest way to strip trailing whitespace from all lines in a file?; we could use sed.
How to generate random numbers?; there are some OS-specific solutions, but many more non-OS specific.
How to replace tabs with spaces?; you can use expand and unexpand.
... etc.

How do I edit crontab files with Vim (I get the error: 'temp file must be edited in place'); this is a specific problem with a specific error that only occurs on FreeBSD (and not Linux, for example)
How to edit content from the standard input?; the question itself assumes UNIX concepts, and while these are also present on other systems (such as Windows), very few people use them in this manner (if it's even possible, not sure).
Can visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?; seems obvious, Windows doesn't have a copy-on-select clipboard.

How do I save a file in a directory that does not yet exist?; we could use shell commands for this (mkdir -p), which are OS-specific.
How can I copy text to the system clipboard from Vim?; there are some small differences in how clipboards work on different systems.
What's the simplest way to strip trailing whitespace from all lines in a file?; we could use sed.
How to generate random numbers?; there are some OS-specific solutions, but many more non-OS specific.
How to replace tabs with spaces?; you can use expand and unexpand.
... etc.

How do I edit crontab files with Vim (I get the error: 'temp file must be edited in place'); this is a specific problem with a specific error that only occurs on FreeBSD (and not Linux, for example)
How to edit content from the standard input?; the question itself assumes UNIX concepts, and while these are also present on other systems (such as Windows), very few people use them in this manner (if it's even possible, not sure).
Can visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?; seems obvious, Windows doesn't have a copy-on-select clipboard.

typos

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edited Feb 15, 2015 at 18:37

muru

25.1k
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Furthermore, I'm also not sure of tagging a question with bohboth unix and linux is necessarily good idea. I think that all of the linux questions could just be tagged as unix, this this is not a Linux-specific issue, but rather about the UNIX version of Vim (:echo has('unix')). For the same reason, I would say that x11 is sometimes more appropriate than unix (such as the "an"Can visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?" question).

Furthermore, I'm also not sure of tagging a question with boh unix and linux is necessarily good idea. I think that all of the linux questions could just be tagged as unix, this this is not a Linux-specific issue, but rather about the UNIX version of Vim (:echo has('unix')). For the same reason, I would say that x11 is sometimes more appropriate than unix (such as the "an visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?" question).

Furthermore, I'm also not sure of tagging a question with both unix and linux is necessarily good idea. I think that all of the linux questions could just be tagged as unix, this is not a Linux-specific issue, but rather about the UNIX version of Vim (:echo has('unix')). For the same reason, I would say that x11 is sometimes more appropriate than unix (such as the "Can visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?" question).

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created Feb 15, 2015 at 16:06

Martin Tournoij

63.3k
15
46

By your reasoning, these questions should then exist in at least 2 flavours:

How do I save a file in a directory that does not yet exist?; we could use shell commands for this (mkdir -p), which are OS-specific.
How can I copy text to the system clipboard from Vim?; there are some small differences in how clipboards work on different systems.
What's the simplest way to strip trailing whitespace from all lines in a file?; we could use sed.
How to generate random numbers?; there are some OS-specific solutions, but many more non-OS specific.
How to replace tabs with spaces?; you can use expand and unexpand.
... etc.

These questions all have 1 or 2 OS-specific solutions. In some cases, they're even the best solutions, but I don't see how adding OS-specific tags is going to help. How would you imagine this, exactly?

How to add line numbers in Vim only
How to add line numbers in Linux
How to add line numbers in MS Windows?
How to add line numbers in a POSIX UNIX way?
How to add line numbers in VMS?
... etc.

The Vimscript solution would also be a good answer to any of the other questions, and the Linux/UNIX answer could also be applicable to Windows. This would lead to a horrible fragmentation of answers.

Point in case: in the original line number question there are 3 Vim-only answers, and one UNIX-y answer. In your question, there are 2 (different) Vim-only answers, and one UNIX-y answer that is the same as the answer on the original question.
How does this serve anyone? Now, anyone (UNIX and Windows users alike) will be served by coming across either question, but they are missing out on 2 or more answers which may work better in their case, because they don't know there is another question to look at!

So, what I did was:

Vote to close your question as a duplicate
Remove the microsoft-windows tag from the original question (perhaps the question body could also be edited slightly to make it more generic)

Problem solved. The original question is now open to all sorts answers.

Examples of questions where an OS-specific tag is useful:

How do I edit crontab files with Vim (I get the error: 'temp file must be edited in place'); this is a specific problem with a specific error that only occurs on FreeBSD (and not Linux, for example)
How to edit content from the standard input?; the question itself assumes UNIX concepts, and while these are also present on other systems (such as Windows), very few people use them in this manner (if it's even possible, not sure).
Can visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?; seems obvious, Windows doesn't have a copy-on-select clipboard.

Furthermore, I'm also not sure of tagging a question with boh unix and linux is necessarily good idea. I think that all of the linux questions could just be tagged as unix, this this is not a Linux-specific issue, but rather about the UNIX version of Vim (:echo has('unix')). For the same reason, I would say that x11 is sometimes more appropriate than unix (such as the "an visual select mode be integrated with the Unix selection clipboard?" question).

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