alt Hacker NewsCron. Initial release May 1975; 51 years ago
It is succesfully flying 51 year. And will work next 50 years. Systemd probably will changes syntax in next 2 years. Modern development mindset: if tool is not rewritten last month - it is outdated and we need to reinvent it. Probably using blockchanin and AI.
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My point was purpose built doesn't mean its the best tool for the job.
As for the rest of the drivel: so what it was used for a long time. That just means it was pretty good. That doesn't mean it has to stay forever, just that a new contender should do things better.
Systemd timers address real shortcomings of cron.
Your argument boils down to: everyone should be stuck with shortcomings of the early days of computing because you don't like new things.
I don't love cron's time format - it's easy to make mistakes - but one-line, one file configuration is simple in a nice way. I bet we could make a cron that was easier but still simple.