> >> How should scripts unescape escaped separators?
> >
> > The "read" command handles this for you if you set IFS correctly (and
> > the escape character is \).
>
> hmm ... relying on people to set IFS seems somewhat more error-prone than
> providing an option to specify the field separation character of the
> parsable output (as was previously suggested).
Again, the default value for IFS is unusable because it doesn't work
properly with empty fields. Consider these two cases:
1. We allow a whitespace delimeter. Things *seem* to work until
the first time the script stumbles on whitespace, and it breaks.
2. We don't allow whitespace. Nothing works until IFS is set.
The second case is clearly less error-prone.
Perhaps we're going over this again and again because the original spec
wasn't detailed enough in covering all the background issues, and no one
has been able to keep up with the subsequent email discussion. As such,
I propose that John and I update the spec and resubmit.
--
meem
