Re: off topic

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@eastlink.ca>]

On 12/09/2016 06:50 PM, Oliver Kiddle wrote:
> Rather than a source-able file, would it perhaps make sense to embrace 
> the concept of plugins. It's a concept that people are familiar with 
> from other software. 

> And if we've kept
> things simple,

Please ;-)
> it could work to just source a single file for a
> plugin.
>
> Finally, we could include the odd plugin in the distribution for
> anything which could be considered fairly core - such as the sensible
> defaults plugin.
The cool thing is just the concept that one can plug something in to try 
it then unplug it later.  I'm sure I'm not the only dude who's changed 
something, busted it, and not known exactly how to back out of it.  
Coolest if there's no extra tech involved at all and it's just a way of 
conceptualizing that some script or other is a system modifier set up in 
such a way that plugging it out is as easy as plugging it in and with 
the culture that there's several options one might want to try.  
Somewhere there is a file full of prompt ideas, nicely labeled: 
'Oliver's prompt' 'Bart's prompt', etc. and it invites you to try them 
and find the one you like -- sorta like that.  Could have a dozen nicely 
named potential configuration plugins -- try one, try 'em all.  Probably 
mostly just alternate zshrc's really but it's how you present it.  
Labeled a plugin, we have the paradigm already.  Mind, there could be 
some hugely useful extra tech too, easy to understand, intuitive, 
tractable, robust ... all the things that shell writers hate ;-))