Joseph Kowalski wrote: > Sebastien Roy wrote: >> On Thu, 2008-06-12 at 08:57 -0700, Garrett D'Amore wrote: >> >>> I have three letters, which may be unpopular: >>> >>> X-M-L >>> >> >> This isn't easily parseable from a shell. Also, let's not design the >> system by committee in the context of this PSARC case please. >> >> -Seb >> > > +1 > > That said, two things,... > > 1) As this seems to be heading for "invention", try to do so > inclusive of the external developers. > > 2) Try to avoid invention. IMO the best "invention" comes from > the virtual stone age --- use unique flags to deliver unique tokens. > Think "uname": > > $ uname -a > SunOS hawaiin-sun 5.11 snv_85 i86pc i386 i86pc > > Yeech: > > $ FOO=`uname -a | <gross pipe>` > > Much better: > > $ FOO=`uname -n` > > Its much easier and more robust to do the token generation in the > utility than in some error prone (and re-invented) shell parsing.
Since they've already got the ability to print a single field... What it sounds like to me, is that you're suggesting that rather than utilities automatically use a particular field separator, they should use white space (of some kind) unless they're told to use another character. This falls in line with the behaviour of tools like awk, cut, etc. Darren
