Newsgroups: comp.os.misc Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!lavaca.uh.edu!menudo.uh.edu!sugar!ficc!peter From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Subject: Re: Globbing Message-ID: Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva) Organization: Xenix Support, FICC References: <17602@lanl.gov> <18205@lanl.gov> Date: Mon, 18 Mar 91 21:58:11 GMT In article <18205@lanl.gov> jlg@cochiti.lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes: > > And when I'm calling it directly from another program (say, "mail") I > > have to add a bunch of quoting I'm not putting in now... [...] > Only in the _rare_ case when the arguments contain wildcard characters > that you don't want expanded. No, this is the common case, when you're passing a string to a program that you got from somewhere else. You *have* to assume that it might be expanded. It is a bug to do anything else. > Your "solution" doesn't - it requires multiple quoting, > perhaps to several levels if the argument is to be passed through > several programs. No, it requires assuming that the people who wrote the programs put in the appropriate escapes. If they didn't, it's a bug. > Exactly what I just said: DON'T quote multiply - quote once and for > all!! And that means, you quote in the shell. > Quoting should mean what people intuitively think it means: > the quoted argument will be used literally. No matter how many levels > deep it's passed and no matter where it goes, the end use of the string > will use the exact literal contents of the string. I see, so if you're writing a Fortran program you shouldn't have to quote the file name in the following statement: OPEN(NAME='JGTEST.TXT',TYPE=UNKNOWN) ??? > And consistent syntax is achieved by programmer discipline, not > monstrous shell design. Why should the shell be different from any other programming language? > fact the UNIX contains _MORE_ than its share of features which are > inconsistent is evidence that it is not _really_ considered to be an > important issue. So, you're just clutching at any argument which will > defend your religiously chosen system. Ah, abuse. No, my religiously chosen system is AmigaDOS. Which does the expansion in the programs... -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' peter@ferranti.com +1 713 274 5180. 'U` "Have you hugged your wolf today?"