Wondering Aloud (quick, name the band):  What are the issues
involved in making CI execute programs line sh?
 
One of the features of UNIX I enjoy is the relative freeform
method of specifying arguments for a program (i.e., prog -x
xxx -y yyy -z zzz).  Most program I write (few, albeit) use
;INFO to pass parameters.  It would be enjoyable to use
specify program runs in the same way and would provide a
more seamless set of environments for our programmers.  But
as we all know, this will not work from CI.
 
I realize there are alternatives, but each has some
drawbacks.  I could mask each program with a command file
that employs the AnyParm construct.  This is undesirable
because of having too many moving parts (fragility) and the
additional overhead of opening and processing the command
file.
 
I could require all such programs to be run with the
argument list in quotes, but this presents other problems
like the continuing trouble of nested quote types and my
magnificent ability to fat-finger punctuation.
 
The problems I see in altering CI to assume that a group of
space delimited arguments following the name of a program
file should be treated as a ;INFO= parameter include:
 
     What if the arguments include common MPE delimiters
         (;,"'/)
 
     Quote handling
 
     Optional use of traditional MPE RUN parameters which
     can be entered in order, and without the parameter names if
     delimited with commas.
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Guy Smith                                Voice:  804-527-4000 ext 6664
Circuit City Stores, Inc.                  FAX:  804-527-4008
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The thoughts expressed herein are mine and do not reflect those of my
employer, or anyone with common sense.