Does anyone know if bashscript could be updated to allow spaces between assignment? I can't see how it would break existing programs (but I'm sure there's a catch) and scripts would be much cleaner (and less of an headache).
A breaking example might be trying to find lines containing an "=" in a file:
grep = my_file
Also a problem is the syntax for running a program with environment assignments that apply only to the program:
env1=foo env2=bar env3= my_program
Note that under POSIX rules, "env3" here is assigned a zero-length string. Making these sorts of assignments work with spaces around the equal signs would open up a can of worms.
