Re:

> > --Glenn (not remembering if there's a "nice" way to display a string
> >          with special chars without altering the string, hence showvar)
>
> at least i can answer this one....   echo And the result is:
> !stf_final                 - d

That sparks my 10-year+ long complaint about the CI "programming"
facility.  It's flawed, and prevents writing bulletproof readable
programs.    (I'm impressed when people write complex scripts ...
but I long for "real" variables, parameters, local variables, functions,
and more)

echo !stf_final   won't show you the contents of the variable "stf_final"
in all cases.

E.g.:
   setvar stf_final "!" + "foo"
   setvar foo "fum"

   echo !stf_final
      you'll see "fum", not "!foo"!

   showvar stf_final
      you'll see "!foo"

   calc stf_final
      you'll see "!foo"

BTW, echo can be used:

   echo ![stf_final]
      you'll see "!foo"

Note: all of the "you'll see" output actually appears without the
quotes.

--
Stan (I ought to learn more about sh/ksh programming someday :) Sieler