[Info-vax] Unix and DCL shells

[Simon Clubley]

On 2024-01-10, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo at nz.invalid> wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Jan 2024 14:21:18 -0000 (UTC), Simon Clubley wrote:
>
>> Filename globbing.
>
> Coming back to this, it?s worth pointing out that you cannot simply add 
> features, willy-nilly, to a framework that was not designed with them in 
> mind.
>
> Consider how the whole VMS mindset expects the command-line to work: there 
> is a distinction between filespecs separated by spaces and those separated 
> by commas, and even plus-signs. The CLI never does wildcard expansion, and 
> on the one hand this puts the burden on the program (which has the 
> powerful RMS $PARSE service to call on) to expand input filespecs, and on 
> the other hand it allows wildcards to appear in output filespecs as well 
> (again, supported by $PARSE) to indicate ?use the same value here as in 
> the input filespec?.
>

Fine. Then add the globbing pattern capabilities to the current VMS wildcard
lookup APIs without changing anything else. That gives you the same ability
to use more powerful pattern matching expressions on VMS without having to
change anything else in your code.

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Walking destinations on a map are further away than they appear.