🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul26.221156.12144@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>, merritt@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov (John H. Merritt) writes:
|> In article <1992Jul26.033811.21614@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>, merritt@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov (John H. Merritt) writes:
|> |> Explain why the following 'nawk' program produces:
|> [ output deleted ]
|> 
|> |> Here is the program:
|> |> ---- cut test.nawk ----
|> |> BEGIN {
|> |> 	printf("This is the BEGIN section\n");
        system("fflush()")
|> |> }
[...]

|> If there is something like 'fflush' in AWK, that would be great.
|> So far 'close' was the closest thing I found, but the exact syntax eludes
|> me -- if it is the right thing at all.

Ha! Completely by accident and totally by surprise, adding
'system("fflush()")' in the BEGIN section works!  Now, really, I do
know what that statement is trying to do.  As it turns out, anything
in the system call will produce the results I was looking for.  Anything,
that is, that doesn't echo a 'command not found' or other such message.

What better function to define than one that self documents. :-)

This solution was discovered by a beginner who had
no clue about the difference between commands in
section 1 and functions in section 3.  Kind of a good thing
that 'system' invokes '/bin/sh'.
-- 
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
John H. Merritt --> merritt@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov
"I am generally intolerant of ignorance,
but I have made an exception in your case."