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From: coren@osf.org (Robert Coren)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: Globbing
Message-ID: <20618@paperboy.OSF.ORG>
Date: 3 Apr 91 14:37:55 GMT
References: <TB6AKE6@xds13.ferranti.com> <44381@cos.com> <?55G-t_e1@cs.psu.edu>
Sender: news@OSF.ORG
Organization: Open Software Foundation
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In article <?55G-t_e1@cs.psu.edu>, schwartz@groucho.cs.psu.edu (Scott Schwartz) writes:
|> Multics, apparently, had some way to
|> do redirection ("utterly trivial", cf DMR, 1984), so it might actually
|> have been possible in Primos.

Multics's "utterly trivial" redirection, at least for output, was done
outside of the command processor (= shell), which avoided some of the
complexities inherent in the UNIX approach. The "file_output" command
would redirect (the equivalent of) stdout to the specified file until
restored by the use of "revert_output". Instances of "file_output"
could be "stacked". Simple example:

	file_output listfile; list; revert_output

Of course, you could have as many commands, of arbitrary complexity,
with as much iteration, "globbing", etc., as you liked, between the
"file_output" and "revert_output" commands.

Late in its life (around 1987), Multics added UNIX-style redirection
and piping; I don't remember the details, since by that time I was
working on something else. (There were difficulties coming up with an
acceptable syntax, as I recall, since Multics used > as the directory
separator in pathnames. barmar, do you remember any of the details?)
	Robert