Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!lll-tis!ames!pacbell!att!alberta!ubc-cs!van-bc!lpami
From: lphillips@lpami.van-bc.UUCP (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: REXX archiver (was Re: Sources in text mode please)
Message-ID: <1770@van-bc.UUCP>
Date: 18 May 88 00:50:57 GMT
Sender: lpami@van-bc.UUCP
Lines: 37


In <3580@ece-csc.UUCP>, rss@ece-csc.UUCP (Ralph Scherp) writes:
>You use the "SHOWDIR" function to get a directory list.  The one problem
>with this is that SHOWDIR returns a complete list of filenames, separated
>by spaces.  AmigaDOS filenames can contain spaces [and often do, when 
>the files are intended for WBench use rather than CLI]; so parsing out
>individual names by breaking up the list returned by SHOWDIR can break
>occasionally.

Yes... my CLI propensity showing through. All files I have any say in are
named without using spaces and it just slipped my mind.

>I don't mean this is a flame, just an observation, I'm wondering if their
>is a way around this problem.

Yes there is, but I suspect it won't be pretty. One thought is to check for
the filename on a word by word basis as in the original, and when it
returns saying the file isn't there, try it with two words, three words,
etc. One other technique that might work is using OVERLAY() to map the
SHOWDIR onto a string with delimiters already in it. It will depend on
whether the space between filenames is treated in the same way as the space
within a filename by the SHOWDIR function. I'll play with it.

-larry

PS: Just spoke to Bill Hawes, and he tells me that SHOWDIR will, in the
next update to ARexx, take an additional parameter. It will be a
'separator' character that will separate the actual file names, leaving the
spaces alone.

--
Janus? Well, look at it this way. If you squint a little, the J could be
       Amiga checkmark, and the rest of the word describes MsDos.
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                          |
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