cfv@packet.UUCP (07/26/83)
In line with the new philosphy of Unix programming (CPSCI 107/Phil 114),
I see a place where it looks like we need to rethink what we are doing.
Instead of installing a '-u' option in every command that might someday
need it (cat -u, lpr -u, herbie -u), generalizing the unbuffered is probably
the best bet so that it can be used consistently over all programs...
Probably the best place for it would be in the shell as a calling line
parameter. My thought would be something like:
{%,$} =u cat ...
with the = showing that this is a shell parameter instead of a command
parameter. Perhaps this could even be extended so that the '=u' could
be anywhere on the calling line invisibly to the program (parsed along
with other metacharacters, perhaps).
This thought leads to one other possibility. I have always felt that there
should be some way to tell the shell to turn off metacharacter parsing so you
could pass them to a program easily (something like 'tar xv /usr/l*' comes
to mind. This could be turned on by something like the '=p' parameter, and
we might even want to use a '=P' parameter so it can be selectively turned
on and off, but that would be better done by quotes.
comments?
--
>From the dungeons of the Warlock:
Chuck Von Rospach
ucbvax!amd70!packet!cfv
(chuqui@mit-mc) <- obsolete!