Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Pipes
Message-ID: <12536@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 11 Jun 90 16:10:04 GMT
References: <2533@zipeecs.umich.edu> <136735@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <1990Jun6.104643.15176@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <12373@cbmvax.commodore.com> <3149@leah.Albany.Edu>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 31

In article <3149@leah.Albany.Edu> wfh58@leah.albany.edu.UUCP (William F. Hammond) writes:

>I have never had trouble in the ARP shell with the two meanings of "|"
>(i.e., as (1) pipe and (2) first string OR second string) probably because
>the "OR" syntax always occurs inside parentheses while the pipe syntax does
>not.  Maybe this is just the idiosyncrasy of my usage.

As I recall, ARP only handles the alternation charcter inside of parentheses,
but real Amiga commands support it outside them as well.  There is still no 
ambiguity, though, if you define the syntax for "|" as a pipe rather than a 
file alternation character, in most cases.  Normally, a pattern with 
alternation uses "|" without whitespace:

	dir this|that

While a pipe would look like:

	dir | this | that

both of those would work just dandy, as intended, in WShell.  In the case where
you really did have whitespace to consider next to the alternation character,
the whole pattern would have to be in double quotes, just as any filename with
whitespace when used from a shell.

>William F. Hammond                   Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
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	"I have been given the freedom to do as I see fit" -REM