Re: Piping and Redirection

Rob,

>You mean like OVRDBF INPUT and OVRDBF OUTPUT on the FTP command?

Yes, that is an example of redirection.  Piping is conceptually similar, but
takes the output of one command and automatically feeds it as the input to
another.  This allows simple filters like "more", and more elaborate filters
like "sed" or "grep".

The beauty of *nix redirection and piping is its simplicity at the command
level, and the fact that most *nix commands use stdin and stdout.  Using OVRDBF
with FTP is very much the exception, not the norm.   Sure, you can override
about anything, when you know the names.  But since commands are not typically
dealing with stream I/O, it often does not yield the same flexibility.   So we
at times add code to the program itself so you can request *, *Print, or
*Outfile support (as an example).

But as others have said, the two platforms are just different paradigms and have
their respective strengths and weaknesses.  I still prefer the 400 for coding
business solutions.  But as a command line junkie and propeller head, the stuff
you can do with ad hoc commands under *nix is pretty amazing.

Doug