Gary D (zSoftware) asks: Never?? A: Right, never.
There's always enough information available to make that asterisk unnecessary. If you're working with a stem, you've been counting how many things went into zork.index, otherwise how do you know what 'index' is? So:
Code:
"EXECIO" index "DISKW $TMP (STEM ZORK. FINIS"If you (like me) prefer to use the queue, then builtin function "QUEUED" will tell you how many things are in the queue:
Code:
"EXECIO" queued() "DISKW $TMP (FINIS"When using "EXECIO *", the first null item in the queue halts output because it marks the nominal end of the queue. But what if there are more entries after that null entry -- that is: 'null' is a valued piece of data in this queue? And if there isn't a null at the end of the queue, "EXECIO *" will prompt the user at the keyboard to enter a "/*" (end-of-data) but without any indication that that's what it wants... "EXECIO" queued() solves both of those problems.
I don't know if having a null item in a stem generates the same syndrome, but I suspect it might. Even so, if there are null entries in the stem, do you want to risk missing anything that follows?
Too risky... Never use "EXECIO * DISKW".
Frank Clarke
Tampa Area REXX Programmers' Alliance
REXX Language Assn Listmaster