*Repeat macro

Repeat is handy. I’d like to be able to go something like

*Repeat “SetType %0 BBCFont” RAM:$

At the moment I’d make an ObeyFile with the line “SetType %0 BBCFont” and call that as the first argument to repeat instead.

Unfortunately Repeat appears to evaluate its arguments first. What you need is lazy semantics for commands, not eager. Because the Obeyfile command language is first order, the only way to use lambda expressions (what comes within your double-quotes) is as separate Obey files. I do not know of any command-shell languages that are higher order, but I would be glad to be corrected.

At the moment I’d make an ObeyFile

The repeat command can also be an alias, to a limit, then it is better in an obey file.
The command could be any type of script that can read the file argument given to it by Repeat.
The %0 normally would have to be %%0 to delay it when making an alias.
Set Alias$font2bbc SetType %%0 BBCFont

+1 for Ronald’s suggestion of using aliases. This is what I do in my Obey files with Repeat.

You could have a *DoMacro command instead to do it anonymously:

*Repeat "DoMacro ""SetType %0 BBCFont""" RAM:$

If you’re interested in iterating over files and/or directories, there was a very useful article in Archive 23.1. It might be particularly useful to look at Steve Revill’s findfiles, available here: http://www.7thsoftware.co.uk/software.htm

The *Repeat command has a third argument called <tail>, but it’s buried among various switches when you try *Help Repeat. Ignoring the switches, the syntax of *Repeat is:

*Repeat <command> <directory> <tail>

So what you want can be achieved by:

*Repeat SetType RAM:$ "BBC Font"

The *Repeat command has a third argument called

I haven’t used this in the past, thanks for bringing it to my/our attention, makes things tidier.
As you say, well hidden to people speedily reading through.
Possibly if it had said ‘command argument’ or such it would have been more eye catching.
Edit: Looking at *help repeat again, I see that tail is missing from the options list.
I must investigate the -continue option further, as the error reporting becomes unhelpful while in a repeat loop.