shell: support ':' separator for multiple args

It becomes a pain to remove all colons just to add a single argument.

shell

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Author: Peter Wu <lekensteyn@gmail.com>
 
 hidw() {
-	local hiddev arg bytes fillchar length oIFS
+	local hiddev arg bytes fillchar length oIFS actualArgs
 	hiddev=$1; shift
 	bytes=()
 
@@ -24,11 +24,10 @@ In this case, the message is padded with '0xff'.
 
 The data can also be interleaved with chars by starting an argument
 with a underscore (_). For example, "_foo" is equivalent to "66 6f 6f".
+A colon can also be used as separator, the previous hidw example is
+equivalent to:
 
-If only a single argument is given, the commands may be separated by
-colons. The previous hidw example is equivalent to:
-
-    hidw /dev/hidraw0 10:ff:81:ff..
+    hidw /dev/hidraw0 10:ff 81:ff..
 
 This function does not show replies, use the 'read-dev-usbmon' program
 instead.
@@ -41,11 +40,19 @@ HELP
 		return 1
 	fi
 
-	# Support ":" as separator if there is only a single argument. This makes
-	# it easier to work with tshark output, and does not break "_:" arguments.
-	if [ $# -eq 1 ]; then
-		oIFS="$IFS"; IFS=:; set -- $*; IFS="$oIFS"
-	fi
+	# Support ":" as separator, but ignore string arguments (_...).
+	actualArgs=()
+	for arg; do
+		if [[ $arg != _* ]] && [[ $arg == *:* ]]; then
+			# Strip leading+trailing such that "11:02: 83 01" is still valid.
+			arg="${arg##:}"
+			arg="${arg%%:}"
+			oIFS="$IFS"; IFS=:; actualArgs+=( $arg ); IFS="$oIFS"
+		else
+			actualArgs+=( "$arg" )
+		fi
+	done
+	set -- "${actualArgs[@]}"
 
 	for arg; do
 		# clear the fill char, makes only sense as last argument