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From: groenewo@fwi.uva.nl (Ferry van het Groenewoud)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: Wildcards in the CLI
Message-ID: <1991Apr25.100919.21595@fwi.uva.nl>
Date: 25 Apr 91 10:09:19 GMT
References: <1991Apr16.155231.18782@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <7384@munnari.oz.au> <6512@bwdls58.bnr.ca> <20893@cbmvax.commodore.com>
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daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie) writes:

>In article <6512@bwdls58.bnr.ca> dbscoop2@bwdlh417.BNR.CA (Las Lovas) writes:

>>The problem stems from the fact that C= (in their infinite wisdom) decided to
>>use * to refer to the console device (STDIO), so they had to have a different
>>convention for wildcards than the "standard" UNIX and (dare I day it...) 
>>Messydos conventions.

>Well, not quite.  MS-DOS and UNIX don't have an equivalent for # in their
>pattern specification languages.  So it would be just as confusing to the
>person who's refusing to lean AmigaDOS to have * as a direct replacement for
># as it would be for them to learn # in the first place.  The Apollo computer
>Domain/OS (nee Aegis) actually does this; in that system, * works very much 
>like #, only it's a postfix, not a prefix (eg, "#?" in AmigaDOS matches "?*" 
>in Apollo).

>Also, I should point out that the behavior of * is by no means standard; it
>works differently in UNIX, MS-DOS, VAX/VMS, C64/C128 DOS, etc.  Under the
>Amiga OS, #? means the same as * under UNIX.  And as mentioned, in 2.0, there
>is a kludge in dos.library that equates * to #? if you ask for it.  

>Personally, I can't see any more logic for * in AmigaDOS than I can for
>:= in C language or a "Park" setting on a 5-Speed manual transmission.  They
>are different critters, and once you learn what you're doing, you're happier
>than resorting to either complaints or kludges.  Obviously, if you're just
>starting out, this IS something to learn, but a very minor piece when compared
>to what else is out there to pick up.

MY problem with the #? wildcard is, that it are TWO characters, and, as everyone
figured out, a * is only ONE character. Add to this the unhandy place they are
at on the keyboard, makes the use of it at least twice as unhandy as using *.

Something else that is ofcourse very annoying about wildcards is that not all
doscommands handle them but I believe that has been fixed in 2.0 (hasn't it?!)

Ferry.

>-- 
>Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
>   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
>      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.

--
Mac.   The noise of a wrong calibration.    PS/2.  You can't see the new thing.
IBM.   The toys of a dead generation.       Sun.   You can't feel the beating.
NeXT.  The choice cause of bad information. Atari. You'll need some healing.
                                           
Amiga. For boys with real imagination.  __  Amiga. You can reach the ceiling.
                                     __/ /
Ferry van het Groenewoud             \__/  groenewo@fwi.uva.nl