TaskWindow and redirection

From a TaskWindow, the command

*TaskWindow “Help . { > AllHelp }” -quit

You’d expect it to use a TaskWindow to do Help . and redirect the output to AllHelp, right? What it actually does is open a TaskWindow with all the help in it, and create an empty AllHelp file (which is left open). On Adjust (not sure about other 4.x versions) it does the reidrection.

I guess ‘something’ is getting the redirection wrong. This will work as a workaround ..

*TaskWindow “Do Help . <123> > AllHelp }” -quit

I don’t understand what the dot/period is, and you’ve omitted the space after the closing brace.

Taskwindow "Help { > AllHelp } " -quit

seems to work fine.

On Adjust (not sure about other 4.x versions) it does the reidrection.

The original command (without the space after the closing brace) also works on Select (RO 4.39).

don’t understand what the dot/period is

The dot in “Help .” generates help about everything.

and you’ve omitted the space after the closing brace.
Taskwindow "Help { > AllHelp } " -quit

Interesting – what version of the OS? Here it brings up a task window with the output from *help

What version are you using, Chris?

Here, on 5.27 (06 Feb 2020), the following works fine…
*TaskWindow "Help . { > RAM:AllHelp }" -quit
from a StrongEd TaskWindow.

RO5

Somewhere I’ve got some notes on redirection, which IIRC originated at ROLtd, and I had thought that even those warned about the essential spaces.

I had deduced that it was the absence of the space that was causing the file not to have been closed because the final brace wasn’t recognised.

Unfortunately can’t find the notes!

Found them:

Here are some examples of redirection:

1. *Cat { > mycat }
2. *Lex { > printer: }
3. *BASIC –quit { < answers } prog
4. *fred { < infile > outfile }
5. *Cat { > out1 < infile > out2 }

Notice the 3rd example shows the space after the closing brace.

What version are you using, Chris?

Version 5.27 (21 Sep 2019) here. This is on an ArmBook. There is an Armbook update out but I want to make sure I have a backup of my stuff before I install it. I’ll be slightly miffed if I trash my system.. ;)