mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) (05/10/91)
In article <3474@trlluna.trl.oz> aduncan@rhea.trl.OZ.AU (Allan Duncan) writes: From article <21405@cbmvax.commodore.com>, by daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie): > Maybe because * is already taken. What does ARP do with: > > copy * quick_file > > If it doesn't let me type from the console into a file called "quick_file" No, Dave, the use of * to represent the console is the kludge. There are many way this could have been done instead of using an already overloaded single character symbol. ARP's solution to this particular usage is elegant although not obvious - type >quickfile This is one of the reasons that ARP gets bad press around here. They claim "100% compatable with AmigaDOS", but when it comes to brass tacks, it's "Well, we provide a better way, so we don't have to do it the way AmigaDOS did." I suspect that the ARP solution doesn't work in the general case, where it's running from a script taking input from a file, but don't have arp or 1.3 to test it on. <mike -- So this is where the future lies Mike Meyer In a beer gut belly; In an open fly mwm@pa.dec.com Brilcreamed, acrylic, mindless boys decwrl!mwm Punching, kicking, making noise
peter@cutmcvax.cs.curtin.edu.au (Peter Wemm) (05/14/91)
mwm@pa.dec.com (Mike (My Watch Has Windows) Meyer) writes: >In article <3474@trlluna.trl.oz> aduncan@rhea.trl.OZ.AU (Allan Duncan) writes: > From article <21405@cbmvax.commodore.com>, by daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie): > > Maybe because * is already taken. What does ARP do with: > > > > copy * quick_file > > > > If it doesn't let me type from the console into a file called "quick_file" > No, Dave, the use of * to represent the console is the kludge. There > are many way this could have been done instead of using an already > overloaded single character symbol. ARP's solution to this particular > usage is elegant although not obvious - > type >quickfile >This is one of the reasons that ARP gets bad press around here. They >claim "100% compatable with AmigaDOS", but when it comes to brass >tacks, it's "Well, we provide a better way, so we don't have to do it >the way AmigaDOS did." >I suspect that the ARP solution doesn't work in the general case, >where it's running from a script taking input from a file, but don't >have arp or 1.3 to test it on. > <mike >-- >So this is where the future lies Mike Meyer >In a beer gut belly; In an open fly mwm@pa.dec.com >Brilcreamed, acrylic, mindless boys decwrl!mwm >Punching, kicking, making noise Actually, They have a "compatability mode" - one option makes the above case work like the amigados "copy * some_file" and the other makes it work like "copy #? some_file"! The point is, they made the default behavior the same as amigados (admittedly it's not perfect..), and allowed you to change into "improved mode" if you knew what you were doing.. (eg set BCPL FALSE, set ESCAPE \ (or whatever - it seems like forever since I used 1.3/ARP)) I never really use script files for much other than short startup's, and generally never trust anybodies install scripts.... One thing that I know doesn't work the same was something like: setenv >nil: DESTDIR ? (or was that date?) Sure the Execute command did some strange things occasionally, and typing "alias cat type []" killed the device list on my particular setup (I just changed it to "alias cat type" and it works fine!) From my point of view, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages by far! -- Peter Wemm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ peter@cs.curtin.edu.au (Home) +61-9-450-5243 Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia. Nuke the Simpsons!