Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!purdue!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!mjl
From: mjl@ut-emx.UUCP (Maurice LeBrun)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: AmigaDos vs Unix wildcards/pathnames
Keywords: Amigados unix filesystem
Message-ID: <11135@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 11 Mar 89 07:14:49 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 49

A topic rises from the grave..

The postings on Unix vs Amigados path-names and wildcard characters in
the last month have been very interesting.  From observing the various
arguments I came up with the following results:

wildcards      winner: Unix
pathnames      winner: a toss up, tie-breaker going to Unix

although I am not completely unbiased in this regard (but fairly
close, I figure, since I didn't know much about Unix before my Amiga,
actually learning a fair amount *about* Unix from my Amiga; I was
amazed at the similarities).

I too am a bit ambivalent about the pathnames, but would rather the
Unix style be supported.  As far as wildcards go, the #? symbol is
irritating and the following is an atrocity:

1> copy (*.c|*.h) t:    (what's wrong with `cp *.c *.h t:' ??)

Funny thing is, it reminds me of the directory specification in VMS,
which I also hate (ouch! those brackets), despite having used it for
years.

Sure, you say, it's just a little extra typing with some characters
that are hardly ever used in ordinary text, NO BIG DEAL!  :-) Well,
user interface *is* important, especially for people who use a
computer often (read: *users*, not just programmers).

Unix compatibility may be important, no?  Somewhere I must have missed
it, did anyone scream this several hundred times, and I just missed it?

I don't want *all of Unix* especially, but I'd like something a bit
closer than at present.  I don't give a **** about device drivers, for
example.  The average user (maybe I'm above-average :-) deals only
with the OS at a fairly high level -- certainly a better effort to be
more Unix-like at this level can be made (without going with all of it).

BTW, I was a fanatical Matt Dillon Shell fan (thanks Matt! [is this a
cliche by now?]) but eventually switched to Conman/WShell/ARexx.  I'm
almost completely happy, but still not quite.

Then again, maybe none of you really exist.

Maurice LeBrun		      |   "So then I says to Borg, `You know,
Institute for Fusion Studies  |  as long as we're under siege, one of us
University of Texas at Austin |    oughta moon these Saxon dogs.'"
Internet:                     |
  mjl@fusion.ph.utexas.edu    |                   (Far Side)