Re: WELCOME to zsh-users@sunsite.dk

Re: WELCOME to zsh-users@sunsite.dk

[Frank Jeschke]

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Hi there,

my zsh shows strange behavior I don't understand and doesn't find on
google. When typing a command line comment it out and hit enter the I
get the following:

sss@kyag:[~]$ #vim /tmp/foo
zsh: command not found: #vim
jes@kyag:[~]$ zsh --version
zsh 4.3.4 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)

zsh 4.3.2 shows the same behavior.

Does anyone know why this happens? Is this known behavior? How can I
get rid of it?


Frank

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Re: WELCOME to zsh-users@sunsite.dk

[Frank Terbeck]

Frank Jeschke <jes@hostis.de>:
> my zsh shows strange behavior I don't understand and doesn't find on
> google. When typing a command line comment it out and hit enter the I
> get the following:
> 
> sss@kyag:[~]$ #vim /tmp/foo
> zsh: command not found: #vim
> jes@kyag:[~]$ zsh --version
> zsh 4.3.4 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
> 
> zsh 4.3.2 shows the same behavior.
> 
> Does anyone know why this happens? Is this known behavior? How can I
> get rid of it?

% man zshoptions | less -p INTERACTIVE_COM

Regards, Frank

-- 
In protocol design, perfection has been reached not when there is
nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
                                                  -- RFC 1925

Comments in ZLE

[kba]

On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:01:37PM +0100, Frank Terbeck wrote:
> Frank Jeschke <jes@hostis.de>:
> > my zsh shows strange behavior I don't understand and doesn't find on
> > google. When typing a command line comment it out and hit enter the I
> > get the following:
> > 
> > sss@kyag:[~]$ #vim /tmp/foo
> > zsh: command not found: #vim
> > jes@kyag:[~]$ zsh --version
> > zsh 4.3.4 (i686-pc-linux-gnu)
> > 
> > zsh 4.3.2 shows the same behavior.
> > 
> > Does anyone know why this happens? Is this known behavior? How can I
> > get rid of it?
> 
> % man zshoptions | less -p INTERACTIVE_COM
> 
> Regards, Frank

I shared Frank's confusion until I recently stumbled over the
INTERACTIVE_COM option by accident. Is there a specific reason why this
is off by default? To avoid clashes with commands that start with '#'?
Can '#' be used to do history expansion like '!' or something like this?

Re: Comments in ZLE

[Frank Terbeck]

kba <unixprog@googlemail.com>:
> On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:01:37PM +0100, Frank Terbeck wrote:
> > Frank Jeschke <jes@hostis.de>:
[...]
> > > sss@kyag:[~]$ #vim /tmp/foo
> > > zsh: command not found: #vim
[...]
> > 
> > % man zshoptions | less -p INTERACTIVE_COM
> 
> I shared Frank's confusion until I recently stumbled over the
> INTERACTIVE_COM option by accident. Is there a specific reason why this

It's actually INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS. I was too lazy to type it out.
Less's -p option just wants a pattern to search for, so that was
enough. :-)

> is off by default? To avoid clashes with commands that start with '#'?

Well, I'd guess it's been done to let people use the hash char without
needing to quote it. After all, who really uses comments in
interactive mode? (yeah, I know some people do. But they can just use
said option.)

> Can '#' be used to do history expansion like '!' or something like this?

Not that I would know, why?

Regards, Frank

-- 
In protocol design, perfection has been reached not when there is
nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
                                                  -- RFC 1925

Re: Comments in ZLE

[Mikael Magnusson]

2009/2/14 Frank Terbeck <ft@bewatermyfriend.org>:
> kba <unixprog@googlemail.com>:
>> On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 11:01:37PM +0100, Frank Terbeck wrote:
>> > Frank Jeschke <jes@hostis.de>:
> [...]
>> > > sss@kyag:[~]$ #vim /tmp/foo
>> > > zsh: command not found: #vim
> [...]
>> >
>> > % man zshoptions | less -p INTERACTIVE_COM
>>
>> I shared Frank's confusion until I recently stumbled over the
>> INTERACTIVE_COM option by accident. Is there a specific reason why this
>
> It's actually INTERACTIVE_COMMENTS. I was too lazy to type it out.
> Less's -p option just wants a pattern to search for, so that was
> enough. :-)
>
>> is off by default? To avoid clashes with commands that start with '#'?
>
> Well, I'd guess it's been done to let people use the hash char without
> needing to quote it. After all, who really uses comments in
> interactive mode? (yeah, I know some people do. But they can just use
> said option.)
>
>> Can '#' be used to do history expansion like '!' or something like this?
>
> Not that I would know, why?

# can be used for lots of stuff, (foo/)# for repeating patterns,
${#foo}, ${foo#pattern}, $(( ##a )) etc etc. Note that I only know
what the first one does :).

-- 
Mikael Magnusson

Re: Comments in ZLE

[Bart Schaefer]

On Feb 14, 11:02am, Frank Terbeck wrote:
} Subject: Re: Comments in ZLE
}
} kba <unixprog@googlemail.com>:
} > Is there a specific reason why this
} > is off by default? To avoid clashes with commands that start with '#'?
} 
} Well, I'd guess it's been done to let people use the hash char without
} needing to quote it.

Zsh was originally invented with the intention of providing a csh-like
interactive experience for a Bourne-like shell language.  (Among other
reasons.)  Csh doesn't do comments at the interactive prompt, so zsh
didn't either.  Remember, we're talking nigh on to 20 years ago; no
Linux, and most universities had timeshared machines running 4.x BSD,
so the default shell for new users was csh (not even tcsh, which is
what most people mean now when they say csh).
 
} > Can '#' be used to do history expansion like '!' or something like this?
} 
} Not that I would know, why?

Look at the HISTCHARS variable (and note that it can also be called
histchars, because of course csh uses the all-lower-case format).

In fact the answer to "Why does zsh do this weird thing that no other
shell I ever used does?" is frequently "You're too young to know what it
was like when nearly everybody's first shell exposure was csh."