>   >   #!/usr/bin/awk NR > 1 {print $1}
   >                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
   >that is one argument 
   
   depends on the context.  from the point of view of the shell, it's
   several.  from the point of view of exec_script, it's (currently) one.

nono, that's the point.  to the shell, it *is* one argument.  if you
typed it at a shell, you would quote the highlighted part above.

   if you'd asked me before this discussion started, i'd have guessed it
   wouldn't do what you want, since i expected that the only the first
   argument (delimited by white space) after the interpreter name would
   be passed to the interpreter.
   
   >standards?  heh.
   
   yeah...i know.  what's standard anyway?  bah!
   
   <rant>
   
   everything's posix compliant these days, but nothing interoperates.

as far as i know, nothing specifies this behaviour *exactly*...