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From: msp33327@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Michael S. Pereckas)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Globbing
Message-ID: <1991Mar15.161802.2459@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 15 Mar 91 16:18:02 GMT
References: <1991Feb18.152347.28521@dgbt.doc.ca> <474@bria> <19217@cbmvax.commodore.com> <5573:Feb2307:19:4491@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <00085@meph.UUCP> <10803@dog.ee.lbl.gov> <00087@meph.UUCP>
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In <00087@meph.UUCP> gsarff@meph.UUCP (Gary Sarff) writes:


>To restrict searches there are command line switches, (I went into all this
>in a post a month or more ago), such as :exclude=<filespec>,
>:since=<date-time> :before=<date-time>.  In that posting I was merely
>demonstrating that some poster's claim that letting the utilities handle
>their own command lines would lead to instant chaos as an axiom.  _ALL_ of
>the utilities that come with the OS that take file(s) as arguments take
>file-lists as arguments, which include multiple wildcarded filespecs
>separated by commas, and using the above mentioned, plus a few other,
>switches.  And chaos has not ensued at this company or for our users.

I think what worries people is that removing globbing from the shell
makes chaos easier.  Too many of us have seen systems where every
program does it differently, and most of them do it poorly (mess-dos,
for example).  Certainly we don't have to have chaos.  With strong
norms about how to deal with command lines, there wouldn't be chaos.
The chaos comes when no one tells you what the standard way is.  The
unix shells send a strong message about how to do it...but there are
other ways to clue in the programmers.
--


Michael Pereckas               * InterNet: m-pereckas@uiuc.edu *
just another student...          (CI$: 72311,3246)
Jargon Dept.: Decoupled Architecture---sounds like the aftermath of a tornado