Alias named '='

Alias named '='

[René Neumann]

Hi all,

I stumbled upon the idea to define a function '=' to have an inline
calculator in zsh [1].

As multiplication is a normal operation, I also want 'noglob' behavior.
There seems to be no way of defining this for a function (or is there?),
so the only way would be to haven an alias
   alias '='='noglob ='

But this seems to not be possible, yielding 'bad assignment': The alias
command seems to hard-parse until the first equal-sign -- even tricks like
   alias $'\u3D'='noglob ='
do not work.

Does anyone know a trick that could be used here?

Best regards,
René


[1] https://github.com/arzzen/calc.plugin.zsh

Re: Alias named '='

[Vincent Bernat]

 ❦  8 octobre 2017 10:03 +0200, René Neumann <lists@necoro.eu> :

> I stumbled upon the idea to define a function '=' to have an inline
> calculator in zsh [1].
>
> As multiplication is a normal operation, I also want 'noglob' behavior.
> There seems to be no way of defining this for a function (or is there?),
> so the only way would be to haven an alias
>    alias '='='noglob ='
>
> But this seems to not be possible, yielding 'bad assignment': The alias
> command seems to hard-parse until the first equal-sign -- even tricks like
>    alias $'\u3D'='noglob ='
> do not work.

I am using "c" instead of "=", but you can use "=" with:

aliases[=]='noglob ='
-- 
Use the "telephone test" for readability.
            - The Elements of Programming Style (Kernighan & Plauger)

Re: Alias named '='

[René Neumann]

Am 08.10.2017 um 10:29 schrieb Vincent Bernat:
>  ❦  8 octobre 2017 10:03 +0200, René Neumann <lists@necoro.eu> :
> 
>> I stumbled upon the idea to define a function '=' to have an inline
>> calculator in zsh [1].
>>
>> As multiplication is a normal operation, I also want 'noglob' behavior.
>> There seems to be no way of defining this for a function (or is there?),
>> so the only way would be to haven an alias
>>    alias '='='noglob ='
>>
>> But this seems to not be possible, yielding 'bad assignment': The alias
>> command seems to hard-parse until the first equal-sign -- even tricks like
>>    alias $'\u3D'='noglob ='
>> do not work.
> 
> I am using "c" instead of "=", but you can use "=" with:
> 
> aliases[=]='noglob ='
> 

Ah, thanks! That worked.

- René

Re: Alias named '='

[Daniel Shahaf]

René Neumann wrote on Sun, Oct 08, 2017 at 12:57:43 +0200:
> Am 08.10.2017 um 10:29 schrieb Vincent Bernat:
> > I am using "c" instead of "=", but you can use "=" with:
> > 
> > aliases[=]='noglob ='
> > 
> 
> Ah, thanks! That worked.

It did, but setting aliases this way not supported:

% aliases[=]='echo foo'
% alias -L >/dev/null
zsh: invalid alias '=' encountered while printing aliases
% 

Context: http://www.zsh.org/cgi-bin/mla/redirect?WORKERNUMBER=37548

Suggest that you use something other than '=' as the first character.

Cheers,

Daniel

Re: Alias named '='

[Ray Andrews]

On 08/10/17 11:37 AM, Daniel Shahaf wrote:
>
> Suggest that you use something other than '=' as the first character.
Yeah, it astonishes me that such a thing would even be attempted or that 
it could possibly work anyway.   There must be characters that are 
preserved for symbolic use only.