Re: Announcement of Zsh Command Architect v1.0

[Dominik Vogt <vogt@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

On Wed, Jan 06, 2016 at 05:22:29PM +0100, Sebastian Gniazdowski wrote:
> Version 1.0 of the tool is ready, webpage with animated gifs:
> 
> https://github.com/psprint/zsh-cmd-architect

I've watched the video on that page many times and I'm still
trying to figure out what kind of problem this module can solve
that cannot be solved with history search, menu completion and
pressing <TAB> a couple of times.

> Feature highlights:
> - adding, removing, moving segments of commands

> - colorful searching in history with multi-word matching

The multi-word matching syntax would be helpful in general for all
"search"-type operations.

> - unique mode - no need for HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS
> - horizontal scroll - commands of any lengths can be handled and build
> - colorifying - configurable highlight of selected keywords
> 
> (z) and zsh/curses are tools, ZCA is utility that uses them in a high
> level fashion.

> No more need for a mouse to copy parts of commands in history.

I never use the mouse for that (partially because the middle mouse
button is broken):

  (Move cursor to start of word to copy)
  Ctrl-Space (set mark)
  (Move cursor to start of word to copy)
  Ctrl-w (cut)
  (Move cursor to new location of the word)
  Ctrl-y (yank; insert cut buffer)

Or with the example from the video:

  # type
  mplayer -fs
  # noticed that I need a long word from the history, so comment
  # out the unfinished command line and store it in the history
  <ctrl-a>#<return>
  # look for the history line with the long word; the multi word
  # search would be helpful
  <ctrl-r>The_Voi
  # Mark and cut the file name:
  <move cursor><ctrl-space><ctrl-f><ctrl-w>
  # abort editing
  <ctrl-g>
  # recall the unfinished command and insert the cut-buffer
  <cursor-up><ctrl-e> <ctrl-y>
  # remove comment and execute
  <ctrl-a><delete><return>

That's fifteen additional keystrokes plus typing part of the file
name and moving the cursor to the start of the name.  And that's a
lot more typing than just "mplayer -fs The_Voi<TAB><RETURN>".

To me it appears that cases where a complicated part of a former
history line needs to be copied and the same cannot easily be done
with completion is quite rare.  And even then I could just edit
the complicated line instead of copying a part of it to a new
line.

I'm really interested in user experience with that approach,
though.

Ciao

Dominik ^_^  ^_^

-- 

Dominik Vogt
IBM Germany