Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!lion!nrjwong
From: nrjwong@lion.waterloo.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Filenames, ARGH!!
Keywords: filenames, csh, spam
Message-ID: <20017@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 21 Jan 90 00:26:25 GMT
References: <591@lectroid.sw.stratus.com>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: jlee4@orchid.waterloo.edu
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 49

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.
>
>However, I'm stonewalled atthe beginning:  How can you write an effective
>command interpreter when ANY character -- spaces, tabs, hyphens, underscores,
>colons, etc. can be in your filenames.  Furthermore, with the limit on filename
>length being 31-characters, that could make for some mighty hairy pathnames.
>
>Are there any accepted or innovative ideas out there to overcome this hassle?  Any
>information would be greatly appreciated (and given credit for!).
>
[This probably should've gone in comp.sys.mac.programmer if it isn't in
there yet instead. Anyways...]

I've thought about this a bit. One thing I came up with is why make the user
spell out to the shell which file is the one the user wants when the shell
can make a pretty good guess itself.

Essentially if you get something like "ls Joe's Birthday", the obvious thing
that shells assume is that a filename is a word [sequence of letters, etc]
separated on either sides by a space. Well, if you try and find the file
"Joe's" and it doesn't exist - don't give up and bitch to the user
"I don't know what you're talking about man!", attach the next word to
your original search word and try again. So you'd try "Joe's Birthday"
and would succeed.
I think that's where most of the problems occur.

Now there are situations where you might have filenames "Joe's", "Birthday",
and "Joe's Birthday" - stick up a dialog box or something to say
you're not sure what file he's referring to. At least if the
command line didn't have these words quoted.

I don't know how much of a performance hit this might have on a shell.
I really haven't thought this out much, so there are probably more than
a few problems lurking around.

Oh, about pathnames. The max filename length is 31 chars and the max
pathname you can specify at once is 255 chars [or thereabouts]. So if you
geta real long pathname, you'd have to split up the pathname and descend
into the disk in two or more calls as opposed to one.

But MPW is fine for 99% of the things I have to do in a shell.
Greater speed would be appreciated. Fewer bugs in the C compiler.

Johnny Lee
jlee4@orchid.waterloo.edu [using nrjwong's account cause my machine
doesn't get these newsgroups].