On Thu, Jan 13, 2022 at 06:38:56PM +0000, Simon wrote: > Steve Litt <sl...@troubleshooters.com> wrote: > > > This is one reason why, in shellscripts, you > > need to quote almost all variables: So they act correctly with the > > space laden filenames that windows dwoobydogs just love to create. > > Not just Windows users. I regularly use spaces in file names. > > There’s an argument that computers should be tools, not slavemasters. > I’m sure you’ll remember going back a few decades how interacting with > computers meant that the human had to learn how to deal with the computer’s > way of doing things. So, for example, typically when writing a document you > had an edit mode from which you couldn’t print, and a print mode (menu) from > which you couldn’t edit - you could not simply write you document and when > ready just tell the computer to print it. > > I recall a lot of resistance when Apple brought out the Mac and suddenly > programmers had to learn how to write programs that did what the user wanted > - when the user wanted.
Sounds good. But for the first two years the Mac was out, programmers couldn't use it to write programs. To program it you had to use a much moe expensive machine, and Apple Lisa. Not what I, a potential user, wanter. After two years, somewone marketed a Pascal interpreter -- not even a compiler. -- hendrik >So, for example, open an editor, write your document, and whenever you want - >hit Cmd-P (or choose Print from the File menu) and it gets printed, right >there from inside your “edit mode”. > And now most people stuff like that for granted. rings have shifted from the > user doing the work to make the computer side easy to the user expecting the > computer side to do the work - after all, isn’t the purpose of computer to do > “stuff” for us ? > > Similarly with file names. Once upon a time the human had to adapt to what > the computer supported - such as fitting your entire file name into 8 > characters. Now the computer (mostly) supports what is natural for a human - > and that includes using spaces in their writing. > After_all_it_does_seem_a_bit_un-natural_not_being_allowed_to_use_spaces_in_your_writing_-_it_would_make_a_hard_to_read_book_! > > > > Another OT anecdote. This talk of spaces and quoting reminds me of an issue I > had to deal with a couple of work hats ago. I had some users who would > struggle sometimes to log into their terminals on the SCO OpenServer system. > When I watched them carefully, I’d see them mistyping either their username > or password, so for example assume their username is “username”, they might > mistype it thus : “userm<left key>name” rather than “userm<backspace>name”. > Because it looked OK on the screen, it was hard to persuade them that what > the system saw them type was “userm<left key>name” and not the “username” > they could clearly see on the screen. > > > Simon > > _______________________________________________ > Dng mailing list > Dng@lists.dyne.org > https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng
