Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Globbing
Message-ID: <19217@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 22 Feb 91 03:15:00 GMT
References: <1991Feb18.152347.28521@dgbt.doc.ca> <474@bria>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Distribution: na
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 38

In article <474@bria> uunet!bria!mike writes:
>In an article, dgbt.doc.ca!don (Donald McLachlan) writes:
>|1 remove globbing from the shell.
>|2 put in a library.
>|3 current shell programs would need to be updated (first thing they do
>|  is call glob(argc, argv), returning argc and argv updated (globbed)
>|4 New programs that want to glob can call glob.

>This has been discussed before, but briefly put, it would complicate code
>needlessly, 

Well, it certainly can complicate code a little.  You might have to build
a doubly nested loop, rather then the single "for (int i = 0; argc--;..." 
thing.

>and create even more of a maze of command syntax for the average user.  

Unless all possible commands fit into the 

	command [flags] arg1..argN globbed_filesystem_arg

model, you're pretty much in trouble if you only have shell globbing.  And
anything that doesn't fit that model becomes needless, inconsistent 
complication to the average user.  After all, the average user doesn't know
how the program gets written, and has no reason to expect that shell 
escapes are necessary when feeding a command a pattern for a string search,
but not necessary when feeding a command a pattern for a file search.  

Program driven globbing doesn't force inconsistency, and certainly shell
globbing doesn't force consistency, as UNIX is more than happy to prove to
anyone using it.

>Michael Stefanik, MGI Inc., Los Angeles| Opinions stated are not even my own.

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
	"What works for me might work for you"	-Jimmy Buffett


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