Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!blake!ogccse!schaefer
From: schaefer@ogccse.ogc.edu (Barton E. Schaefer)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.d
Subject: Re: Bourne Again Shell?
Message-ID: <1997@ogccse.ogc.edu>
Date: 16 Feb 89 17:54:48 GMT
References: <26563@teknowledge-vaxc.ARPA> <42400008@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu> <3099@ficc.uu.net> <3103@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: schaefer@ogccse.UUCP (Barton E. Schaefer)
Organization: Oregon Graduate Center, Beaverton, OR
Lines: 28

In article <3103@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
} In article <3099@ficc.uu.net>, karl@ficc.uu.net (karl lehenbauer) writes:
} > In article <3089@ficc.uu.net>, peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
} > > We've been over this quite a few times, but what it basically amounts to
} > > is that CSH history is more convenient for simple [...] manipulations.
} > But doesn't this mean we'll have to start backslashing all our '!'
} > characters in mailpaths and such again?  Ick.
} Well, the assumption is that they'd use the latest csh as the model, and have
} a histchars-type option to select what the history characters are...

The solution to the "backslashing all our '!'" problem is to add a new
variable, analogous to "nonomatch".  Just as "nonomatch" causes the
globbing pattern to be returned when no matching files are found, the
new variable would cause the history pattern to remain unchanged if no
history substitution is found.  The variable could be called "nonohist"
or some similar psuedo-explanatory abbreviation.

Come to think of it, "nonovar" would come in handy, too. :-)

Incidentally (plug plug) the next version of Dan Heller's MUSH (Mail
User's SHell), the mailer with everything, has a variable "nonobang"
to control its csh-style history mechanism in precisely that way.
Coming moderatedly ;-) soon to a comp.sources.unix near you.
-- 
Bart Schaefer       "Dogs are the animal byproducts in the wienie of life."
                                                                -- Garfield
CSNET / Internet                schaefer@cse.ogc.edu
UUCP                            ...{sun,tektronix,verdix}!ogccse!schaefer