It seems like there is some strange behavior if you type the text literally in the if statement, e.g.:
alias test1 {
if (a & c iswm a b c) { echo -a yes }
else { echo -a no }
; this alias will echo "no"
}
alias test2 {
var %a = a & c
var %b = a b c
if (%a iswm %b) { echo -a yes }
else { echo -a no }
; this alias will echo "yes"
}The first alias, test1, will echo "no", while the second alias, test2, will echo "yes". My guess is that it is treating the & as the bitwise comparison operator in the first one.
However, even when placing it inside a variable, only the "a & b" and "a& b" constructs work. "a &b" and "a&b" will not match at all.
Now that we understand what works and what doesn't work, I'd propose that this wildcard SHOULD match on any non-empty combination of non-space characters. This would give it meaning both with or without spaces to either side of it. I don't see any reason to limit its usefulness to only cases where spaces are present on either side of the wildcard character.
