Re: wish for a colored completion system

[Matthias Kopfermann <kopfermann@trio-hittfeld.de>]

> On Jun 8,  2:44pm, Matthias Kopfermann wrote:
> }
> }  the only problem with it, it is not simple nor is it obvious :(
> 
> You want simple, or you want programmable?
hmm, that is one of the more difficult questions to ask.
I guess, I would like medium programmability. :)
Reminds me on something:
i love vim but i had to get used to the color-programming, in
elvis (another vi-clone) it was much, much simpler but not at all
powerful.
I guess: I would very much like the shell to train me in doing it
manually so when i know i can do the programming much quicker.
Something like a interactive tutorial.
You know , like for vi or emacs.
(" Now try to get the colors right.
First: What command do you want to be completed? ...")
Or: What about a nice Gui-Interface (tcsh has it for
completion) or a dialog-script that helps me do a whole set of
completion-algorithms? I would be very satisfied, because it
would reduce my steep learning curve.
reading -> translating ( in my case ) -> understanding ->
programming.
Sometimes i think the
getting-used-to-it takes longer than the whole effect of
usibility  (but that may be my problem only because i -hate to
say it - i am slooow!.)
> 
> That approach was designed to make it easy to use your existing GNU "ls"
> color options for coloring files in zsh.  Easy for one thing,
and that IS easy, right!
> hard for
> some others.
At first I thought, the approach was not general enough. but then again:
The more general the more complicated , it seems.
Handcoding is great if knowledge is there. But in my case it
would dramatically increase my knowledge if there was a tool to
help me get it right and be trained and then i could study the whole output and
do the whole thing manually much quicker.
I love to be able to do it manually. And i really love to be able
to work with unix ( linux in my happy case ) 
_without_ using graphical interfaces, really. 
But normally all these powerful tools don't come with easy to
follow instructions how to make it work.
Peter Stephenson has done many very good attempts to change that
with his userguide and I said before that i consider this to be
very, very important and applauded him.

To make a long explanation of my state short:
I would love to have a training tool (software) for many of the wonderful
free software-products and almost nothing is available.
So it takes time. In my case much time that i love to spent but
sometimes i just get frustrated because it takes soo long.

okay, I revealed myself. Many things are personal but i know many
people that feel the same. 
And , because Bart asked , i took the chance to explain it.
Of course this is not at all ZSH-specifig. 
Is it off-topic?

Matthias