Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!necntc!celtics!roger From: roger@celtics.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: more rm insanity Message-ID: <1901@celtics.UUCP> Date: Tue, 8-Dec-87 13:28:37 EST Article-I.D.: celtics.1901 Posted: Tue Dec 8 13:28:37 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 13-Dec-87 09:50:44 EST References: <1257@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <6840002@hpcllmv.HP.COM> Reply-To: roger@celtics.UUCP (Roger B.A. Klorese) Organization: CELERITY (Northeast Area), Framingham, MA Lines: 44 In article <8145@ism780c.UUCP> mikep@ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic) writes: |In article <1895@celtics.UUCP> roger@celtics.UUCP (c'est moi) writes: |>My point, really, is that we need some way of determining in a command |>line which patterns are *filenames* - these should be expanded by the |>shell - and which are *(option patterns, network-node wildcards, etc.)* - |>things which cannot be expanded or pattern-matched against a directory, |>and should be passed to the program for expansion. | |Hey, wait a minute. This is easily accomplished... Use the |backslash. I know, I know, the backslash is usually located out |of the way, but that's a wimpy excuse. | | |I couldn't see adding a "feature" like smart expansion and thoroughly |modifying the shell (and possibly the kernel) just to make things |slightly simpler for a select few. The rest of us are used to |globbing in the shell and use the backslash when we don't want |globbing. No problem. Yeah, but the question is not when the *user* doesn't want globbing, but when globbing by the shell is *inappropriate* to the command, and the user expects wildcards to do pattern matches against *the appropriate pool of selections*, not against *filenames*. Explain to a user, please, why the user can get a list of filenames beginning with "cel" by typing ls cel* ...but in order to get a list of adjacent network nodes beginning with "cel", using the hypothetical "netlist" command, the user must type netlist cel\* ...makes no sense to me. (An even better example would be installations of products like Technology Concepts' "CommUnity" (alias Celerity's Accelnet/DNI). Why can I list local and NFS'd files using "ls cel*" but can only list files on a DECnet-connected system using "dnals cel\*"?) -- ///==\\ (Your message here...) /// Roger B.A. Klorese, CELERITY (Northeast Area) \\\ 40 Speen St., Framingham, MA 01701 +1 617 872-1552 \\\==// celtics!roger@necntc.nec.com - necntc!celtics!roger