From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: erik quanstrom <quanstro@quanstro.net>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:21:04 -0400
To: 9fans@9fans.net
Message-ID: <3f1ba6307644fecb39cef428f3cb0bf4@ladd.quanstro.net>
In-Reply-To: <0d34ca37980c4db0a99135f256c7d8aa@terzarima.net>
References: <0d34ca37980c4db0a99135f256c7d8aa@terzarima.net>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] rc niggle, and proposed fix
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On Wed Jun 22 12:00:07 EDT 2011, forsyth@terzarima.net wrote:
> >ifs seems a holdover.  it's only ever used in `{} yet
> >it's a global inherited variable.  so it's easy to write
> >a script that assumes that ifs is set to the default.
>=20
> i wonder if it's best left alone. it isn't detailed enough
> to crack many plausible formats, for instance full csv.
> if i needed one of those formats to feed into a `{} i'd add
> a filter that converted to quoted & space-separated fields
> that the default ifs would crack.

yes.  rc splitting is limiting, and i'd love a better idea.
my argument isn't that this is great, but that it is better.
like the type system in c.  :-)

as a lame example, ...

the word splitting in `{} is good enough to handle many
formats, including splitting by na=C3=AFve word and line.

at one point i rewrite iwhois to handle other
registrars than network solutions, and it was very handy
to have these functions

	fn split{
		ifs=3D. x=3D`{echo -n $*} echo $x
	}

	fn permute{
		while(! ~ $#* 0){
			echo $*|sed 's/ /./g'
			shift
		}
	}

to walk through whois databases for names like x.y.example.com.au
to find the registered name without having a database of which database
operates at which level.

- erik