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To: rc@archone.tamu.edu
Subject: My programming challenge: the motivation
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1992 17:44:46 -0500
From: Chris Siebenmann <cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu>
Message-Id: <92Apr18.184500edt.2715@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu>

 I neglected to write out in full that newlines are allowed in the
string, and that all such newlines *must* be preserved. The motivation
for this exercise is to write code that can correctly handle *all*
filenames it may get handed, and manipulate the result. Consider, for
example, handing a loop of the form:
	for (i in $*) {
		x=`{basename $i .blorf}
		...
	}
a filename that has a newline in it. We can get the 'full' name back
from basename with
		x=`` () {basename $i .blorf}
but it will have an extraneous trailing newline on the end; we need to
be able to strip this off, while leaving everything else untouched.
And there's the problem.

	- cks