Re: [9fans] Re: Perl5 & kenji arisawa's perl question

[Greg Shubin <gshubin@sonic.net>]

Russ Cox wrote:

> Dodging the C++ bomb shell (quiet, Boyd!), I think I
> would summarize my view of the feeling by saying that
> Plan 9 provides you with a new perspective on how
> to implement various things that in Unix are taken
> for granted as the ``only way to fly''.
>
> The bash features you cite are a great example: instead of
> endowing the shell with command completion, history
> using arrow keys, and emacs command editing, Plan 9 puts
> roughly equivalent capabilities in the hands of the window
> system: you can edit any text in any rio window, cut, paste,
> etc.  The feel is different, but now it applies to _all_ applications,
> not just the shell, and without requiring everything to link
> against the GNU readline library.

In my limited experience with Plan 9, I found the "history" just about
useless compared with bash. With bash, I can let the computer grep a few
thousand lines of history, and select whatever is appropriate. With the
Plan 9 cut and paste, I have to visually search, then move from the
keyboard to the mouse and back. Plus I only get a page or two of history.
Also, does Plan 9/rc have [command | filename] completion? I haven't
found it yet. (maybe I should RTFM?)