Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!ubc-cs!alberta!alberta!arcsun.arc.ab.ca!arcsun!kenw From: kenw@skyler.arc.ab.ca (Ken Wallewein) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: shell architecture (to glob or not to glob) Message-ID: Date: 28 Feb 91 13:04:36 GMT References: <378@bria> <19062@cbmvax.commo <5615@awdprime.UUCP> <488@bria> Sender: nobody@arc.ab.ca (Absolutely Nobody) Organization: Alberta Research Council, Calgary Alberta, Canada Lines: 48 In article <488@bria>...: > > It has _everything_ to do with globbing. Certainly, if "-" wasn't a > >valid filename character, the parser could use that as a parsing guide. > >But even then, it shouldn't matter. > > Wait a second here. The dash is not part of globbing, per se (no cruft > about the brackets, now. We all *know* that, don't we?) > > The shell globs filenames. Beyond that, it makes no decisions for the > program. It does not re-order arguments, it does not qualify switches, > etc. The way the program handles the dash has absolutely nothing to do > with the shell; it has to do with getopt() and whether or not the program > in question chooses to use it. > > Mixeth not apples with thine oranges. ** Flame on ** I'm getting tired of this. I try to make a reasonable point clearly, and some Unix accolyte with blinkers steadfastly refuses to even try to understand it. Reminds me of Saddam Hussein claiming victory. Read my lips, or whatever. I am not attacking Unix, and I am not attacking shell globbing. I am simply trying to point out an apparently rather subtle limitation of common implementations of command line preprocessing -- that shell globbing tends to hide potentially useful information about the users' intentions, and places restrictions on one's choice of command line syntax. I think most of those who haven't already killed this thread understand that. I've said enough; I'm not going to pursue this thread any further. ** Flame off ** > People who groan about the complexity of UNIX, and all of the "hack > workarounds" deserve DOS. Go play in that sandbox awhile. You'll come > crawling back to UNIX soon enough. ... aw, hell, that comment doesn't belong here, and it's not worth replying to. I'm not sure why I've bothered replying to the message at all. -- /kenw Ken Wallewein A L B E R T A kenw@noah.arc.ab.ca <-- replies (if mailed) here, please R E S E A R C H (403)297-2660 C O U N C I L