Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!ames!haven!decuac!shlump.nac.dec.com!mcntsh!long
From: long@mcntsh.enet.dec.com (Richard C. Long)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Filenames, ARGH!!
Message-ID: <7612@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Date: 19 Jan 90 19:38:58 GMT
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 29


In article <591@lectroid.sw.stratus.com>, lennox@paris.sw.stratus.com (Craig Scott Lennox) writes...
> 
>I'm trying to write a csh for a Mac SE.  Say what you like, but there are some
>times when you need to type commands rather than mouse them.
> 
>[asks for ideas on handling filenames with embedded whitespace, etc.]

Funny you bring this up!  I've been working off and on (well, more off than
on) on one of these for a while.  One idea that struck me immediately (since I
work on VMS) was to use a method similar to that of VMS' DCL, i.e. to quote
the filenames.

Something like so:

COPY "this mac file" "another mac file"

If the filename contains quotes, they would have to be doubled up, like

COPY "this ""name" "that name"

Admittedly, this is a bit of a pain, since almost all files (I suspect) would
have to be quoted.  I'm not really sure of any other way it could be done,
though, off the top of my head.  Some kind of delimiter is needed.

Although I am somewhat biased, I think DCL is an excellent CLI, and would make
a good model.  Does this help at all?

rich