Oh, yes... ...as does printf() (when using ' or ")... and different versions of 4NT/TCC/TCC-LE/etc, which also use different multi-command separators which may also include '%' characters...

Anyway, with all this escaping, the (originally) simple approach is getting more and more complex to read and understand... particularly when I come back to this in a year or sumfin'...(!) ...and I want to try and avoid any (somehow) avoidable complexity for something as simple as 'globbing' a list of files(!)

...but point well-taken... Fanx!