Re: Expanding quotes

[Yuri D'Elia <wavexx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 12/24/2013 04:12 PM, Ray Andrews wrote:
> file name   .................. two identifiers so ...
> "file name" .................. is the filename  ... << file name >> or
> are the double quotes include in the filename so that the filename is 
> ....  << "file name" >> ?
> 
> Madness!
> 
> Granted I'm still a relative beginner, but it seems to me that the
> syntax of zsh (all sh*) is already vastly over complicated, even
> Byzantine.  As more and more special situations are handled, the code
> must mushroom into an intractable mess, and actually create more
> problems than it solves.  Better IMHO not to even try.

Quoting is invariably part of any language construct.

It's really important, especially as a beginner, to understand quoting
right from the start as a "normal event", not as an exception.

Restricting the allowed characters of a file in the file system will not
remove quoting issues of a variable's value (for example).

To wrap your mind against it, you might see quoting as a problem for the
interpreter to *separate arguments* and not to interpret data. That is,
if we could choose # as an argument separator, we could have any
character in the file name except #. It just so happens that it's
/usually/ more readable to type:

$ command argument "a value"

then

$ command#argument#a value

Just my 2c.