Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction
Subject: Re: Wildcards in the CLI
Message-ID: <21406@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 8 May 91 20:52:34 GMT
References: <12024@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 27

In article <12024@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> asg@sage.cc.purdue.edu (The Grand Master) writes:

>The basic wildcard notation of UNIX is pretty standard among
>some other popular OS's. DOS and VMS treat * the same way as
>does UNIX. It is not unreasonable to ask Amiga to do the same.

Actually, that's not true, the meaning of * is slightly different in UNIX,
MS-DOS, and VMS.  For example, if I type "rm *" in a directory under UNIX,
all files get deleted.  In MS-DOS, only files not ending in ".???" get 
deleted.  In VMS, it's an error, since you can't partially specify files to
delete.  At other times in VMS, "abcd*", for example, actually means
"abcd*.LST;n", where "n" is the most current version of said file.  Under
Apollo's Domain/OS, * can't be used alone, it means the same thing as # in
AmigaOS, only it's a postfix rather than prefix operator.

So I agree with the use of # in AmigaOS.  A die-hard MS-DOS user would get
a few syntax errors with Delete, but never accidently delete all files when
the intention was to delete the files not ending in ".???".  A UNIX user
shouldn't care, because these folks are smart enough to adapt to the OS that
they're using; after all, once you've dealt with the most cryptic OS, anything
else should be a cakewalk.

>Courtesy of Bruce Varney           ###               #
-- 
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.