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From: Kilgallen@SpamCop.net (Larry Kilgallen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Ada.Command_Line and wildcards
Date: 22 Feb 2007 09:12:05 -0600
Organization: LJK Software
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Date: 2007-02-22T09:12:05-06:00
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In article <d59kre.p4q.ln@hunter.axlog.fr>, Jean-Pierre Rosen <rosen@adalog.fr> writes:
> Maciej Sobczak a �crit :
>> Jean-Pierre Rosen wrote:
>> 
>>> Too bad that Unix behaviour was wrong in the first place...
>> 
>> I don't understand. Shell uses some special characters to make it easier 
>> for the user to type commands [1]. Wildcards are just an example. 
>> Consider this:
>> 
>> $ cat *.ads *.adb | wc -l > loc.txt
>> 
>> If you claim that * above should be passed "as is" to the program (cat), 
>> so that the program can figure out on itself what to do with it, then 
>> you might as well argue that the program should figure out *everything* 
>> above. Obviously, that wouldn't be funny.
>> 
> I claim it would be easier to provide a function that expands 
> parameters, than to force expansion. Or maybe just provide another 
> function that provides the raw parameters.

That is what VMS provides, and what one calls from DEC Ada on VMS.
Using the OS-provided code is essential, as interpreting rooted
directory multivalued logical names is just too complex for
private implementations.