Re: why not update bash syntax while maintaining backwards compatibility?

[Chet Ramey]

On 2/15/19 10:26 AM, Vlad Vladov wrote:
> Hi,
> I think bash is great and more people should use it. However, it has a bit
> more picky syntax than many other modern languages and shell scripts. For
> example assigning a var requires having no spaces between = and var and
> assignment. I think this kind of thing can be fixed while still maintaining
> backwards compatibility since we would only need to accept space (0 or
> more) between tokens. If someone needs to write a script for older systems
> they can just follow a stricter syntax, while others can use the benefits
> of more lenient syntax. What are your thoughts?

That introduces ambiguity. What would be the difference between such a
statement and the invocation of a simple command?

-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/