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From: dave@murphy.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: /dev/stdin:  why not call it "-"?
Message-ID: <414@murphy.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Jun-87 09:03:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: murphy.414
Posted: Thu Jun 18 09:03:15 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Jun-87 01:12:23 EDT
References: <7359@brl-adm.ARPA> <5856@brl-smoke.ARPA> <15318@onfcanim.UUCP> <1098@hropus.UUCP>
Organization: Gould CSD, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Lines: 23
Summary: make the shell do it

In article <1098@hropus.UUCP>, ka@hropus.UUCP writes:
> "-" is certainly easier to type than "/dev/stdin" and is already somewhat
> of a UN*X convention.
> 
> How do you implement it?  Change the name of "open" to "_open" and
> add the following subroutine to your library:
[code deleted]

Why not just make the shell recognize "-" by itself as a special argument and
have it substitute "/dev/stdin"?  The only problem that this would cause that
I can think of is that you'd have to quote it to use it as the subtraction
operator to expr, for instance.
---
"Country beats the hell out of me" -- Jerry Dale McFadden

Dave Cornutt, Gould Computer Systems, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
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