[50 character or so descriptive subject here (for reference)]

[Mario V Nigrovic]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: sparc
OS: solaris2.8
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='sparc' 
-DCONF_OSTYPE='solaris2.8' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='sparc-sun-solaris2.8' 
-DCONF_VENDOR='sun' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE 
-D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -I.  -I/media/gnu/bash-2.05 
-I/media/gnu/bash-2.05/include -I/media/gnu/bash-2.05/lib 
-I/tools/GNU/003/SunOS_5.8/include -g -O2
uname output: SunOS jaguar 5.8 Generic_108528-22 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-60
Machine Type: sparc-sun-solaris2.8

Bash Version: 2.05
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release

Description:
        Constant manipulation of IFS is tedious and can cause grief.
        So I suggest a substitution syntax that overrides IFS for the
        scope of the expansion.

        I'd sure like to see something like

        while read line; do
          pwdata=( "${line@:}" )
          gecos=( "${pwdata[4]@;}" )
          # other code goes here
        done < /etc/passwd

        where the data after the @ gets used to split the quoted word
        up into separate words based on the characters that follow.
        
        I think that's just lots clearer than

        while read line; do
          IFS=:; pwdata=( $line )
          IFS=';'; gecos=( ${pwdata[4] )
          # other code goes here
        done

        because, among other things, you don't have to worry about
        what's happening to IFS in the larger scope.  Constantly
        resorting to save_IFS="$IFS" ... IFS="$save_IFS" makes really
        cluttered and tortured code.

        I have not looked at the code at all, but this seems like a
        fairly simple extension of "$@" and "${array[@]}".

        An additional use for this syntax might be when expanding
        arrays:

        "${array[*]@:}"

        Thanks,
                Mario