A guide to code Zsh natively, without external tools

A guide to code Zsh natively, without external tools

[Sebastian Gniazdowski]

When writing Zsh plugins I learned (i.a. thanks to #zsh channel) how to avoid forks to external tools, for speed and lack of dependencies. I've put this experience into Asciidoc document:

- asciidoctor version:
http://zdharma.org/Zsh-100-Commits-Club/Zsh-Native-Scripting-Handbook.html

- Github version
https://github.com/zdharma/Zsh-100-Commits-Club/blob/master/Zsh-Native-Scripting-Handbook.adoc

If someone knows other constructs like those in the document, I can add them.

-- 
Sebastian Gniazdowski
psprint /at/ zdharma.org

Re: A guide to code Zsh natively, without external tools

[Bart Schaefer]

On Wed, Dec 6, 2017 at 8:12 AM, Sebastian Gniazdowski
<psprint@zdharma.org> wrote:
> When writing Zsh plugins I learned (i.a. thanks to #zsh channel) how to avoid forks to external tools, for speed and lack of dependencies. I've put this experience into Asciidoc

Thanks, Sebastian.  If we ever find a volunteer to update the HTML zsh
guide, this could be a useful added chapter.

Re: A guide to code Zsh natively, without external tools

[Sebastian Gniazdowski]

On 6 Dec 2017 at 20:58:46, Bart Schaefer (schaefer@brasslantern.com) wrote:
> Thanks, Sebastian. If we ever find a volunteer to update the HTML zsh
> guide, this could be a useful added chapter.

I would want to do this now – after I looked at plugin with 190 commits, of author that seems skilled, and found many forks there. Looks like it's very hard for people to see through unix magic (piping, capturing output, etc). Can I receive a few tips how to contribute the HTML?

But one more thing decided. Microsoft opened PowerShell 1.5 year ago. It now runs on Linux and OS X. My thinking is management of reality, not going into paranoid state and the point is that there's some probability that PowerShell with its piping of objects etc. will make other shells end up like it happened with e.g. Nokia or Blackberry. Bad quality of Zsh scripts created by users might take part in this.

For this reason I would also want to submit zredis module again, as it might yield some strong use case. Innovation is important in not ending up like the two companies.

I also think plugin managers, neglected by Zsh experts, should be rehabilitated now. I'm pretty sure nobody on PowerShell will avoid package managers and stick to startup script. But of course the plugin managers fork etc. and the native-handbook may help.

--  
Sebastian Gniazdowski
psprint /at/ zdharma.org

Re: A guide to code Zsh natively, without external tools

[Eric Cook]

On 12/20/2017 05:01 AM, Sebastian Gniazdowski wrote:

> But one more thing decided. Microsoft opened PowerShell 1.5 year ago. It now runs on Linux and OS X. My thinking is management of reality, not going into paranoid state and the point is that there's some probability that PowerShell with its piping of objects etc. will make other shells end up like it happened with e.g. Nokia or Blackberry. Bad quality of Zsh scripts created by users might take part in this.
> 

Its useful for people already heavily invested into powershell to have other machines more interoperability,
but not much else; that is quite possibly why it took you 1.5 years to notice it.

Kinda like cygwin was released 20+ years ago yet the "UNIX"-way didn't take windows by storm.

For shell scripting in general, you could argue that has already happened with the proliferation
of stuff like python; especially in the world of linux.

Re: A guide to code Zsh natively, without external tools

[Eric Cook]

On 12/20/2017 06:53 AM, Eric Cook wrote:
> more interoperability
more interoperable*

Re: A guide to code Zsh natively, without external tools

[Sebastian Gniazdowski]

On 20 Dec 2017 at 12:53:23, Eric Cook (llua@gmx.com) wrote:
> Its useful for people already heavily invested into powershell to have other machines  
> more interoperability,
> but not much else; that is quite possibly why it took you 1.5 years to notice it.

You might be a devop or administrator and speak valuable experience, and there is no way to settle this vague topic in other way than making a decision. But just to evoke history.. What level of confidence did Blackberry have? Seeing someone with Blackberry meant business and money. Similarly with Nokia, even today there is sentiment for model 3310 among past customers. Yet both companies lost their market. Other thing is statistics, on following page, claiming 150k - 200k Linux users a month. Not sure if this number is significant or not: https://aka.ms/psgithubbi (should open on page 6). The 1.5 year could be time between opening and delivering working project.

--  
Sebastian Gniazdowski
psprint /at/ zdharma.org