Question one: Is there a way to achieve execution of system commands without using the shell? Here I'm thinking (for example) of, in perl, the difference between using a single argument to exec() and using multiple arguments. In the first version, shell characters are expanded, in the second, they are not.
If there is no such functionality currently, is this a planned feature? I believe that such a feature would make writing portable plugins easier. Question two: Is there a way to set the buffer name without the name being subject to shell metacharacter expansion? As far as I know, only :edit, :split, :new, :write, and :file allow setting the buffer name, and those all apply shell expansion. I know that characters can be escaped, but that involved knowledge of which characters are significant on each platform and again leads to unportable code (or highly complex code that attempts to be portable by taking each system into account). I would like a function to set the buffer name (potentially for a buffer specified by number) or for the '%' register to be writable. Thank you, bob
