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To:	rc@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu
Cc:	malte@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: more wishes for chrismas 
Date:	Fri, 4 Dec 1992 09:02:51 -0500
From:	Alan Watson <alan@oldp.astro.wisc.edu>
X-Mts: smtp

The backslash is used by so many Unix utilities (in particular sed)
that it would be a pain to have it as an escape character is the
shell.  I have got so used to typing:

	; sed 'some-guff-including-\' <foo >bar

that I use quotes whenever I type:

	; sed 'some-guff-not-using-shell-meta-characters' <foo >bar

I very rarely make quoting errors in rc, but I used to make them all
of the time in sh.  Quoting is one less think I have to think about,
and that allows me to devote more attention to getting other stuff
done.

Tom Duff got this one not just right, but perfect.

There are a few characters which only make sense at certain places --
like "=" which has to be quoted in dd commands -- but at least the
current rules have a simplicity about them.  No "foo does bar except
for on the third Wednesday in the month if the month starts on a
weekend."

Alan.