On Wed, 15 Jan 2014 07:38:03 -0600, John McKown wrote: >On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 2:02 AM, Dale Miller wrote: > >> Some have asserted that tab characters should be removed from source. >> However, for makefiles, according to the GNU Make Manual (for version 3.80) >> "You need to put a tab character at the beginning of every command line." >> This has always struck me as lunacy, but it's an example of the IT golden >> rule - " Who writes the software makes the rules." > Yup.
>Not just GNU make, but z/OS UNIX make as well. I can proffer an possible >reason. Remember from whence UNIX came. The original terminals were serial >terminals connected via RS-232. The tab key, then as now, was close to the >left pinky finger (along with the shift key). So my guess is that the >original programmers were thinking: "What is an easy to hit key for a field >delimiter which will allow us to use any printable character in a field >value. Space? No, we might want spaces in the field value (such as a user's >name in the /etc/passwd file). Hum, well, there is that TAB key placed >nicely for relatively easy use, if we don't need it too often. Sounds like >a winner." > I don't believe that hypothesis is supported by the lexical conventions of "make". Merely lunacy. >..., use an SSH connection to a UNIX shell prompt. ... > >... I can't use "grep" or "awk" as a TSO command to process one >or some or all members of a PDS. Or even as a TSO command ... > I have an EDIT macro that pipes the content of the edit buffer into an arbitrary shell command (subject to lexical restrictions of EDIT command line). Output is issued with Rexx SAY and appears (slowly) in TSO line mode. >... there appears to be no way to run a REXX program from the UDLIST >display of UNIX files as you can from ISPF 3.4 for data sets. > Bummer. One of the strengths of (z/OS) unix is that it's impartial with respect to scripts and executables. Rexx, shell, and program objects can all reside in the same directory and be invoked with similar syntax. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
