Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!well!farren
From: farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Does 2.0 have REAL wildcards? (was Re: VLT Help needed)
Message-ID: <22401@well.sf.ca.us>
Date: 3 Jan 91 08:15:37 GMT
References: <8pwxo8v@Unify.Com> <1990Dec30.163531.22293@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <238@coplex.UUCP> <1991Jan1.052216.672@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> <61799@bbn.BBN.COM>
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cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell) writes:

>Tiny nit --- this is not quite right.  OS's have used '*' for 'all' for
>a VERY long time, and lots of OS's do it.

No.  Lots of operating systems which derive from DEC operating systems
have it.  '*' became popular because it was DEC's preferred universal
wildcard symbol, and for no other reason.  MS-DOS derives from CP/M,
which derives from DEC's OS for the PDP-11.  Unix came into existance
on DEC equipment, and has many holdovers from DEC practice.

>The rest of the Unix file name notation ('?' and [abced]) is really a
>loser.

Not quite.  The regex format allows many nicely precise variants in
parameters (not _just_ file names).  It's a limitation of the shell 
which prevents saying, for example, (*.lisp|*.tex), not an inherent
limitation in the wildcarding, which is yet another reason to put
wildcarding in the executable, rather than in the shell.
-- 
Mike Farren 				     farren@well.sf.ca.us