A strange observation -
$ ksh date
ksh: date: cannot execute
$ ksh "date"
ksh: date: cannot execute
$ ksh "date "
Thu Sep 18 09:22:12 CDT 2008
why the date command doesn't run without a space ??
Please help
ok - this is a slightly odd one...
correct syntax would be
ksh -c "date"
which works.
When you omit the -c, it looks like, from truss, if you pass " " then the ksh gets a SIGQUIT sent, and then the date command is ececuted seperately under your current shell.
As to exactly why it behaves like this.....not a clue 
maybe someone (some thing) moved the date command to "date "
(the file name has a space)
i have seen some weird (and imposible) names for files, like some amount of blank spaces (i never got to know how many)
A shell runs shell scripts, not binaries.
If you have a space in the command, it is not a binary, but shell syntax.