Why no useful defaults?

Why no useful defaults?

[Andy Spiegl]

Hi again,

another question that I've been asking myself for a long time.
Now I decided the list is the better place to ask this.  :-)

I am wondering why zsh doesn't come with some useful defaults?
No wonder that many people don't even know about zsh or try it once and
never again, because without at least a prompt that shows the current dir
it's worse than command.com.  No, sorry I'm exagerating. :-)

But I'd really find it a good idea to provide the beginner with a little
more of the really powerful things zsh has to offer.  Anyone seconds?
 Andy.

-- 
           http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
      http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
                              o      _     _         _
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  ----- _`\<,_    _`\<,_    _>(_) (_)/<_    \_| \   _|/' \/       /\\
  ---- (_)/ (_)  (_)/ (_)  (_)        (_)   (_)    (_)'  _\o_    _\_v
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

Re: Why no useful defaults?

[DervishD]

    Hi Andy :)

> But I'd really find it a good idea to provide the beginner with a little
> more of the really powerful things zsh has to offer.  Anyone seconds?

    I'm with you that the default prompt is... ugly, more or less.
Anyway, I think that users that dare to give up bash and such a good
thing as zsh doesn't look for a pretty prompt, but for script power
and things like that. But, then again, you're true: won't do no harm
to provide 'pretty' defaults to show the power of ZSH. Any volunteer?
I can only contribute with my quite simple RC scripts O:)

    Raúl

Re: Why no useful defaults?

[Will Yardley]

Andy Spiegl wrote:
 
> I am wondering why zsh doesn't come with some useful defaults?  No
> wonder that many people don't even know about zsh or try it once and
> never again, because without at least a prompt that shows the current
> dir it's worse than command.com.  No, sorry I'm exagerating. :-)

I like the default prompt... I'm glad zsh doesn't have some silly fancy
schmancy prompt as the default. There are example prompts which come
with zsh that are a lot fancier.

-- 
Will Yardley
input: william < @ hq . newdream . net . >

Re: Why no useful defaults?

[Andy Spiegl]

Hi Will,

> I like the default prompt...
Hm, most of the people I'm showing zsh and trying to convince them that
it's A LOT better than bash see the default prompt and say yuck.

> I'm glad zsh doesn't have some silly fancy schmancy prompt as the
> default.
Me too!  I'm not talking about these fancy prompts, just a basic prompt
with the cwd in it instead of something ugly like a \u\h and maybe a basic
completion setup that only completes directories for cd and rmdir and
similar things for other basic commands.

Of course we'd have to discuss what's useful for a beginner and what should
be left as homework.  That way _maybe_ some day one of the distributions
will use zsh as their default shell instead of crappy bash.

Why not save the beginners a little bit of the trouble of setting zsh up?
 Andy.

-- 
           http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
      http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
                              o      _     _         _
  ------- __o       __o      /\_   _ \\o  (_)\__/o  (_)          -o)
  ----- _`\<,_    _`\<,_    _>(_) (_)/<_    \_| \   _|/' \/       /\\
  ---- (_)/ (_)  (_)/ (_)  (_)        (_)   (_)    (_)'  _\o_    _\_v
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
			War doesn't decide who is right, only who is left.

Re: Why no useful defaults?

[seth]

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There is a default system wide configuration file with a reasonable prompt.  It
isn't the default prompt I would have chosen, but that is a different issue.

On 20-Jan-2003 Andy Spiegl wrote:
> Hi again,
> 
> another question that I've been asking myself for a long time.
> Now I decided the list is the better place to ask this.  :-)
> 
> I am wondering why zsh doesn't come with some useful defaults?
> No wonder that many people don't even know about zsh or try it once and
> never again, because without at least a prompt that shows the current dir
> it's worse than command.com.  No, sorry I'm exagerating. :-)
> 
> But I'd really find it a good idea to provide the beginner with a little
> more of the really powerful things zsh has to offer.  Anyone seconds?
>  Andy.
> 
> -- 
>            http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
>       http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
>                               o      _     _         _
>   ------- __o       __o      /\_   _ \\o  (_)\__/o  (_)          -o)
>   ----- _`\<,_    _`\<,_    _>(_) (_)/<_    \_| \   _|/' \/       /\\
>   ---- (_)/ (_)  (_)/ (_)  (_)        (_)   (_)    (_)'  _\o_    _\_v
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  Do Lipton employees take coffee breaks?

-- 
----------------------------------
Seth Kurtzberg
M. I. S. Corp.
E-Mail: seth@cql.com
Date: 20-Jan-2003
Time: 10:26:47

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Re: Why no useful defaults?

[Will Yardley]

Andy Spiegl wrote:
 
> > I like the default prompt...

> Hm, most of the people I'm showing zsh and trying to convince them
> that it's A LOT better than bash see the default prompt and say yuck.

What does the default prompt have to do with it? The default bash prompt
is 'bash-[version#]$ '; eg "bash-2.05a$ ' - how much more interesting is
that?
 
-- 
Will Yardley
input: william < @ hq . newdream . net . >

RE: Why no useful defaults?

[Borzenkov Andrey]

> 
> > > I like the default prompt...
> 
> > Hm, most of the people I'm showing zsh and trying to convince them
> > that it's A LOT better than bash see the default prompt and say yuck.
> 
> What does the default prompt have to do with it? The default bash prompt
> is 'bash-[version#]$ '; eg "bash-2.05a$ ' - how much more interesting is
> that?
> 

Exactly. It is a business for distributions to make sure all shells share
the same look and feel including prompts. If people are brave enough to
compile from sources they should be able to setup own prompt as well without
much hassle.

-andrey

Re: Why no useful defaults?

[Andy Spiegl]

> > Hm, most of the people I'm showing zsh and trying to convince them
> > that it's A LOT better than bash see the default prompt and say yuck.
> 
> What does the default prompt have to do with it? The default bash prompt
> is 'bash-[version#]$ '; eg "bash-2.05a$ ' - how much more interesting is
> that?

Oops, you're right.  Sorry, I guess I haven't used bash for so long that I
forgot that :-)

But still, the fact that the bash prompt is ugly doesn't justify that the
default zsh prompt has to be ugly, too.  Besides I wasn't only talking
about the prompt.  All the nice features of zsh have to be turned on
manually first which I think is a shame.

But it seems that everyone on the list is happy and you don't want to
"convert" bash users to zsh.  Well, I don't care, just wanted to help with
an idea. :-(

Chau,
 Andy.

-- 
           http://peru.spiegl.de  Our project
      http://radiomaranon.org.pe  Radio Marañón, Jaén, Perú
                              o      _     _         _
  ------- __o       __o      /\_   _ \\o  (_)\__/o  (_)          -o)
  ----- _`\<,_    _`\<,_    _>(_) (_)/<_    \_| \   _|/' \/       /\\
  ---- (_)/ (_)  (_)/ (_)  (_)        (_)   (_)    (_)'  _\o_    _\_v
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 If you keep doing what you've always done,
 you'll get what you've always gotten.