Does __bma_read_stdin() really need the `tr` and `sed`?

[Mike Bailey]

__bma_read_inputs() {
  echo $(__bma_read_stdin) $@ |
    sed -E 's/\ +$//'         |
    sed -E 's/^\ +//'
}

__bma_read_stdin() {
  [[ -t 0 ]] ||
    cat                  |
      awk '{ print $1 }' |
      tr '\n' ' '        |
      sed 's/\ $//'
}

[Jon Higgs]

You could do it all in awk.

{ words[NR] = $1 }
END {
  for (i in words) {
    printf(words[i])
    if (i != NR) {
      printf(" ")
    } else {
      printf("\n")
    }
  }
}

[Mike Bailey]

It changed in Jan. The syntax might change again but not plans to change the behaviour.