[Info-vax] Local Versus Global Command Options

[Lawrence D'Oliveiro]

On Tue, 18 Feb 2025 21:56:51 -0500, Arne Vajhøj wrote:

> This is  more of a shell question than an OS question.
> 
> bash and DCL are different.

It’s a fundamental difference in how the OSes handle the command line.

Remember, the DEC model (and also that of Microsoft Windows) is that of a 
simple string buffer. The POSIX model is an array of strings (words).

To emulate the POSIX way of doing things when a program A spawns a program 
B without going through the shell, in the DEC/Microsoft model program A 
has to encode the words as though they were being fed to a shell. And 
correspondingly, program B has to decode the result in the same way, as 
though it were receiving the command as a shell. This is a complex and 
fragile process, with ample opportunities for error.

Try that example again, the way I wrote it, and you should get a better 
idea of what I mean.