Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Redirecting output in AWKREAD/NEW/FOLLOWUP
Message-ID: <1988Nov7.191024.17169@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <816@mergvax> <1988Oct5.233609.15321@utzoo.uucp> <1169@qit.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 88 19:10:24 GMT

In article <1169@qit.edu.au> cszohagan@qit.edu.au writes:
>>>The problem I am having is that I cannot output to more than 10 files...
>> Well, it won't help you right now, but the long-term fix is to complain
>> to your software supplier and ask them to get rid of the silly limit.
>> It's not that hard.
>
>The limits are based on the number of file descriptors that can be open
>at one time (usually small)...

Nonsense.  The limits are based on the laziness and lack of foresight of
the implementor.  Dynamically allocating a limited resource (open file
descriptors) among a larger user population (awk's "open" files) is a
well-understood practice.  It's utterly trivial to do for files opened
for appending (">>"), since you don't even need to remember that the file
used to be open.  That's about a five-line change to awk.  For ">" opens, 
you do need to remember the name and the position in the file.  Big deal.
There *are* awk implementations which do this.  Tell your supplier to get
his act together.
-- 
The Earth is our mother.        |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
Our nine months are up.         |uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu