Flaming Escapes - a Partly Baked Idea

[PAAAAAR%CALSTATE.BITNET at cunyvm.cuny.edu]

I want to ventilate a peeve that I have developed over two or three years
of Unix usage, admin and hackery.  It is about "shell escapes".
They are a neat idea and easy to implement (gurus do it in a shell script:-).
But think about this 'Mail' response:
        Unknown command: "cat"
How come they don't know about 'cat'?
My problem is that there *is* a more helpful way to get shell commands than
    (1) learning to type '!' in front of commands that didn't need it before
and
    (2) learning to NOT type '!' before other commmands.

How else could it work, you ask?
Try this
    If the input fails to parse as a command in the current program,
    the program tests to see if it is a valid shell command and if and only
    if it is the program spawns a shell to obey it.
Thus
    there should be a library function that tests whether the first
    lexeme in a string is a valid shell command in the user's current shell.

    Copywrite: Richard J Botting,  Cal State U,  San Berd'o,  1988.
    The above ideas can be used and quoted free of charge by anyone
    as long as this notice is included with the quotation.

    Disclaimer - neither I or CSUSB is responsible for any costs incurred by
    implementing these ideas.
Dick Botting
PAAAAAR at CCS.CSUSCC.CALSTATE(doc-dick)
paaaaar at calstate.bitnet
PAAAAAR%CALSTATE.BITNET@{depends on the phase of the moon}
Dept Comp Sci., CSUSB, 5500 State Univ Pkway, San Bernardino CA 92407
voice:714-887-7368           modem:714-887-7365 -- Silicon Mountain
"where smog of LA, is blown away, and the sun shines bright all the day"!