python 2.7.12 on Linux behaving differently than on Windows

[MRAB]

On 2016-12-06 13:52, BartC wrote:
> On 06/12/2016 13:34, Chris Angelico wrote:
>> On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 12:25 AM, BartC <bc at freeuk.com> wrote:
>>> What, the convention of NOT assuming that any command parameter that uses *
>>> or ? MUST refer to whatever set of filenames happen to match in the current
>>> directory? And to then insert N arbitrary filenames in the parameter list.
>>>
>>> That's a pretty good convention, yes?!
>>
>> Right! And while you're at it, stop assuming that percent signs have
>> meaning, that quotes have meaning, etc, etc, etc. Right? And why
>> should the enter key be significant - what if you want to send more
>> than one line of command line arguments?
>
> But those would be silly.
>
> Some special syntax is known about: | < and > for example. % less so
> (I've never, ever used it in live input AFAIK).
>
[snip]

You've never used ImageMagick?

If you want to shrink an image to half its size:

     convert dragon.gif -resize 50% half_dragon.gif