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From: drears@ARDEC.arpa (FSAC)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re:  Request for human interface design anecdotes
Message-ID: <10504@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 23-Nov-87 10:25:46 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.10504
Posted: Mon Nov 23 10:25:46 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Nov-87 23:58:11 EST
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 28


   It seems to me the real problem is the "magic characters" and not
the novice user.  I like everyone else has made the mistake of typing
stuff like "rm -rf mail *" instead of "rm -rf mail*". Rather then fo
aliases or write programs that mimic rm and don't actually remove the
file until later, rewrite the sh to add a "-m" option.  The "-m" option
would subsitute names for magic and then echo out the command line with
the actual arguments.  If the user wants the command executed he types
return, otherwise he hits the quit or interrupt key.

Example:

unix> rm ty*
rm ty1 ty2 type3 tye ty4 (OK?)    [CR] rm completed
unix> rm ty*                           
rm ty1 ty2 type3 tye ty4 (OK?)    [quit] rm not completed
rm cmd canceled
unix>

     This would be done for all sh commands.  This saves lots of
headaches.  It anyone is interested I can send the code.

Dennis
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