Actually $* is well documented, just never made it to the help file. Though I would say it has always been an experimental feature, and probably why it was never added to /help.
Here is what
versions.txt has to say about it:
3.10 - 01. Added /ctcp $* performs command on all parameters.
3.50 - 16. Using $* improperly would result in a GPF.
3.51 - 16. Commands using $* were not processing commands following them.
6.02 - 65. Can now use $* as a parameter to an alias.
I'm curious about this 6.02 entry, is this to say that $* is now an official "parameter" identifier... or were there actual changes made to $* in this version? From my testing, I don't see any difference between 6.0 and 6.02.
(Edit: Well, the aformentioned bug is slightly worse in v6.0) Something else I find interesting. $1 first appears somewhere in v2.x and later refined in v5.0 (when it finally works for every command regardless), but I can't figure out why *1 and $parm1 was ever added if $N was already in the works.
It would seem $N was slowly being supported by more and more commands, where *N and $parmN worked globally as $N does now. I can't understand why 3 different methods were invented and refined parallel to eachother, or were there specific and unique uses for each method?
- Raccoon