I think even in HolyC you'll be fully quoting all paths. With general purpose languages, they're going to need either a recognised-shorthand-expanding preproces

I think even in HolyC you'll be fully quoting all paths. With general purpose languages, they're going to need either a recognised-shorthand-expanding preprocessor, or unfettered "reader" macros to be able approach Bourne shell style unadorned text that does process and file wrangling.