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From: throopw@sheol.UUCP (Wayne Throop)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: shell architecture (to glob or not to glob)
Summary: an alternative to quoting...
Message-ID: <1208@sheol.UUCP>
Date: 18 Feb 91 02:51:45 GMT
References: <19062@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Lines: 14

> jesup@cbmvax.commodore.com (Randell Jesup)
> If you have a richer expression space [..for arguments..]
> (ala regexp), you end up having to
> do a LOT of quoting.

There is an alternative to this, and that is to make the shell language
lexically simpler and more (let me call it) generic, and context
sensitive.  The reason that shell globbing and regular expressions (to
name the common case of this) end up needing so much quoting is that
their syntaxes overlap.  If the shell didn't react so aggressively to
so many special characters, less quoting would need be done.
--
Wayne Throop <backbone>!mcnc!rti!sheol!throopw or sheol!throopw@rti.rti.org