expr, shell interprets symbols

[Rick Graham]

ISSUE, BUG IN EXPR:

DISCUSSION:
     The shell interprets symbols like ( ) * > before expr gets its command 
line.
     I know this isn't news to anyone so I guess it's not considered a bug.
     I think it is a bug since it corrupts ease of use of this utility.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION:
     Allow expressions to be passed as strings with a command line switch to 
force 
evaluation as an expression.

example
     expr -e "( 128 + 64 + 16 ) * 4"

This could be very simply implemented in two ways:

    1: pre-evaluate the command line expand ARGV out into a new string array 
and count 
for evaluation when strings are switched.

    2: do a straight copy of ARGV replacing -e with a NOP and the string with 
the result 
of its evaluation.

It would also be nice if eval accepted input from stdin.  

I might be willing to do this if I thought the result would be part of the gnu 
suite.

Cheers!
    Rick

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