[Coco] Nitros9 and Smartwatch

[L. Curtis Boyle]

Gene... I think you are think of Shellplus's wildcarding system, not the DIR command that Alan and I worked on. (The latter didn't care how big a directory was, as it processed the wildcard match for each entry, not trying to fill the Shell's command line buffer, like utilities like CP (copy) did. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 10, 2016, at 5:58 PM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> wrote:
> 
>> On Saturday 10 December 2016 17:01:42 L. Curtis Boyle wrote:
>> 
>> Robert is correct in that some things have changed - the ‘-‘ sign on a
>> lot of commands is one. TMODE and XMODE are radically different than
>> the original OS-9 (and if you pull down some older OS-9 programs that
>> fork out to these commands, they will not work properly without
>> patching). So, you are correct in that we need some proper
>> documentation (even just documenting differences/additions would be
>> helpful). Another issue is that some commands in later NitrOS-9 (DIR
>> is a prime example for me) have actually gone backwards from original
>> NitrOS-9. As of version 2.01 of NitrOS-9, DIR had wildcard support
>> (both * and ?), and extra options for recursive directory searches,
>> etc. Then, for some unknown (to me) reason, that new “standard
>> version” disappeared, and it went back to stock OS-9 in functionality,
>> but with the ‘-‘ now required. And there are other examples like this
>> as well.
>> 
>> 
>> L. Curtis Boyle
>> curtisboyle at sasktel.net
>> 
>> TRS-80 Color Computer Games website
>> http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/coco_game_list.html
>> 
>>> On Dec 10, 2016, at 2:54 PM, Robert Gault <robert.gault at att.net>
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> To add to Bill's comments, the NitrOS-9 WIKI is at
>>> https://sourceforge.net/p/nitros9/wiki/Main_Page/
>>> 
>>> There are some differences between OS-9 and NitrOS-9 which are minor
>>> but confusing. Many of the commands can take parameters and some
>>> have been changed. For example, in OS-9 the command dir can have two
>>> parameters: x display current execution directory, e display full
>>> description of each file. However, in NitrOS-9 these parameters now
>>> require the - sign: dir -x   or  dir -e .
>>> 
>>> As it happens, the built in Help function indicates the syntax for
>>> dir. help dir
>>> 
>>> and you will get
>>> 
>>> Syntax: Dir [<opts>] [<path>]
>>> Usage : Displays formatted list of file names in a directory
>>> Opts  :
>>> -e = extended dir
>>> -x = execution dir
>>> 
>>> Unfortunately not all commands or programs are included in Help but
>>> you could edit the SYS/helpmsg file to include new command/program
>>> names. Also some programs have their own built-in help messages.
>>> Unfortunately many of these have been turned off in the current
>>> NitrOS-9 build. You could edit the source code to turn on the
>>> built-in help and recompile the programs.
>>> 
>>> Robert
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
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> 
> I wasn't all that disappointed that the wildcard expansion disappeared. 
> The expansion was handy, when its output could be contained in shells 
> limited line buffer.  But if you wildcarded it in a directory with 
> hundreds of files, the resultant hate & discontent, and the possibility 
> of major filesystem damage made it less than an altogether nice 
> experience.  IMO its safer w/o that ability.
> 
> Cheers, Gene Heskett
> -- 
> "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
> soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
> -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
> Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
> 
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