Strangeness in shell

[Pete Holsberg]

If I assign a shell variable a value that contains an asterisk, the
shell behaves strangely if there is a space adjacent to said asterisk. 
For example,
	x='*z'
	echo ${x}
produces
	*z
but 
	x='* z'
	echo ${x}
produces
	(a list of all the files in the current directory) z
	
What does the space have to do with this?

Please mail and I'll summarize if there is interest.  Thanks.

-- 
Pete Holsberg -- Mercer College -- Trenton, NJ 08690
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