[bug-gawk] FIELDWIDTHS extension request

[Ed Morton]

Could we get an extension for FIELDWIDTHS such that a "*" (or some other 
indicator) means "everything else"? It's very common to have to deal with files 
like:

    foo  bar    stuff
    bill johnny other stuff of some different length

where it's easy to see the length of the first 2 fields but the length of the 
final field can't be determined based on any sample so we end up writing code like:

    FIELDWIDTHS = "5 7 9999"

and pick some arbitrary number that we hope will be big enough to hold whatever 
appears in that 3rd field. It would be clearer and more robust if we could 
instead write:

    FIELDWIDTHS = "5 7 *"

or similar.

We've been having a discussion about the applicability of this at 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.lang.awk/uip6-Ll9Lj0 in case some 
more background is useful.

Regards,

    Ed.