How does one properly "forward" function arguments in bash?

I am wondering how arguments given to a function in `bash` can be properly "forwarded" to another function or program. For example, in Mac OS X there is a command line program `open` (man page) that will open the specified file with its default application (i.e. it would open a *.h file in Xcode, or a folder in Finder, etc). I would like to simply call `open` with no arguments to open the current working directory in Finder, or provide it the typical arguments to use it normally. I thought, "I'll just use a function!" Hah, not so fast there, I suppose. Here is what I've got: ``` function open { if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then /usr/bin/open . else /usr/bin/open "$*" fi } ``` Simply calling `open` works great, it opens the working directory in Finder. Calling `open myheader.h` works great, it opens "myheader.h" in Xcode. However, calling `open -a /Applications/TextMate.app myheader.h` to try to open the file in TextMate instead of Xcode results in the error "Unable to find application named ' /Applications/TextMate.app myheader.h'". It seems passing `"$*"` to `/usr/bin/open` is causing my entire argument list to be forwarded as just one argument instead. Changing the function to just use `usr/bin/open $*` (no quoting) causes problems in paths with spaces. Calling `open other\ header.h` then results in the error "The files /Users/inspector-g/other and /Users/inspector-g/header.h do not exist", but solves the other problem. There must be some convention for forwarding arguments that I'm just missing out on.