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From: a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: PIPEs
Message-ID: <3761@mindlink.UUCP>
Date: 7 Nov 90 16:55:01 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Lines: 33

In article <7010@sugar.hackercorp.com> peter@sugar.hackercorp.com
(Peter da Silva) writes:

>In article <1990Nov6.190147.10534@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu>
>yarnall@opusc.csd.scarolina.edu (Ken Yarnall) writes:
>> ls -l usr:big/ole/directory->more (which = ls -l usr:big/ole/dir -> more)
>
>So long as you make that:
>
>        list usr:big/old/directory->more
>
>Because making - a metacharacter will break UNIX-style command options. Which
>is probably a good thing, IMHO... they're usually the result of laziness on
>the part of the programmer who did the Amiga port.

     To each his own, I guess.  I much prefer Unix-style command
options; Amiga-style keywords take us back to the good old days
of COBOL's reserved words, which are a supreme pain in the butt.
Why shouldn't I be able to have files called ALL or CLONE, and copy
them by just saying COPY ALL CLONE without having to worry about
quoting and other such stuff?  Which other file names suddenly
become "off limits" when someone makes up a new keyword in his
program?  The Unix "-" delimiter is unambiguous, and is easy to
keep out of file names without getting all bent out of shape.

     As for pipe characters, my vote is for retaining the Unix "|"
symbol.  I can't think of any compelling reason to make people
switch to something different.  Besides, multi-character operators
are a pain to parse (but my viewpoint is no doubt prejudiced by
the amount of programming I do).

Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP
Smash violence!