Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!bu-cs!budd From: budd@bu-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards Subject: Re: Command interfaces Message-ID: <17130@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Mon, 7-Dec-87 22:54:14 EST Article-I.D.: bu-cs.17130 Posted: Mon Dec 7 22:54:14 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Dec-87 19:06:20 EST References: <1257@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <6840002@hpcllmv.HP.COM> Reply-To: budd@buita.UUCP (Phil Budne) Organization: Boston Univ. CS Dept. Lines: 19 Older TOPS-10 programs had ersatz wildcarding (most notablly PIP, which would accept imbeded spaces in filenames), while more recent CUSPier ones used the WILD libarary along with SCAN to provide a consistant command interface. Like all such tools there can be more, or less sophisticated uses of them. LINK implemented per file switches. SCAN also provided a consistant init file parser (ISCAN) which read a SWITCH.INI file and looked for switches for this utility (like a .Xdefaults file). Many TOPS-10 utilities (including PIP) had powerful wildcard abilities; .RENAME FOO*.X=BAR*.Y Neither TOPS-20 nor Un*x can do this as simply. (Of course in csh I just use foreach when I want to do anything fancy) I don't deny the beauty of the Un*x command line philosophy, but there are times when the program does know better. Perhaps globbing should be per shell procedure / alias. Phil Budne, Boston University