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. ======================================================================= Guy Smith Voice: 804-527-4000 ext 6664 Circuit City Stores, Inc. FAX: 804-527-4008 9950 Mayland Drive E-Mail: [log in to unmask] Richmond, VA 23233-1464 Private E-Mail: [log in to unmask] The thoughts expressed herein are mine and do not reflect those of my employer, or anyone with common sense.