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From: yarnall@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu (Ken Yarnall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: PIPEs
Message-ID: <1990Nov6.190147.10534@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu>
Date: 6 Nov 90 19:01:47 GMT
References: <6984@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1990Nov4.215000.2760@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu> <1990Nov6.075223.29417@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Math Department, University of South Carolina (ahem; The USC)
Lines: 51

In article <1990Nov6.075223.29417@agate.berkeley.edu> pete@violet.berkeley.edu (Pete Goodeve) writes:
+
+In  <1990Nov5.021744.3349@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu> (5 Nov),
+Ken Yarnall (yarnall@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu) writes:
+> Making the idiot user include whitespace or not seems to be an awkward way of
+> handling it, to me.  How do I remember if I should throw a space in, of if it
+> isn't allowed?   [.......]                                   Seems to
+> me that in any `modern' command-line interface, enforcing the amount of
+> whitespace between tokens is clumsy ("In columns 1-10 appear the command
+> name.  Column 12 contains the optional redirection symbol `<'.  If
+> present...")
+But it's not really like that is it? Separatingtokenswithwhitespaceissometh
+ingwedoallthetime.  EXTRA white space shouldn't be prohibited, naturally,
+but I don't see any problem in requiring it in reasonably obvious places.

But, I view the pipe symbol (and others like it) as a separator, too.  I
realize I'm being picky, here, but I don't see this as an `obvious' place for
whitespace.

If we use |, and require whitspace, then 

ls -l usr:big/ole/dir|more

and

ls -l usr:big/ole/dir | more

are two completely different fish kettles.  Confusion reigns.  I like

ls -l usr:big/ole/directory->more (which = ls -l usr:big/ole/dir -> more)

much better, and since it builds on previous syntax, I don't think it's
overkill.

+                                    -- Pete --
+
+[and for those who still advocate the C-Shell style, herewith a
+quote from the BUGS: section of the man pages for csh:
+
+    "Quoting conventions are contradictory and confusing."            ]

Touche!

ken


-- 
     Ken Yarnall                 ///   yarnall@usceast.cs.scarolina.EDU
      Math Department, USC   \\\///   yarnall@ucseast.UUCP
       Columbia, S.C. 29208   \\\/   (803)777-5218
    `You'd better tie me up.' -- from the movie, "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down"