From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 6183 invoked from network); 11 Jun 2002 09:53:22 -0000 Received: from sunsite.dk (130.225.247.90) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 11 Jun 2002 09:53:22 -0000 Received: (qmail 17941 invoked by alias); 11 Jun 2002 09:53:12 -0000 Mailing-List: contact zsh-workers-help@sunsite.dk; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes X-Seq: 17314 Received: (qmail 17913 invoked from network); 11 Jun 2002 09:53:10 -0000 To: zsh-workers@sunsite.dk (Zsh hackers list) Subject: Re: Possible zsh bug with unique tied vars in 4.0.4? In-reply-to: "Steve Simmons"'s message of "Mon, 10 Jun 2002 13:52:56 EDT." <20020610175255.GA10947@ans.net> Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 10:52:42 +0100 Message-ID: <15870.1023789162@csr.com> From: Peter Stephenson Steve Simmons wrote: > The following sequence of commands shows unexpected performance in > zsh when using tied variables and unique processing. In brief, if > you have tied variables FOO and foo and typeset one of them to unique > (-U), you can use the other to assign non-unique values to the first. > This is counter-intuitive at best :-), and I can see no use for this > feature. The manual page leads one strongly to believe that a single > variable is created which simply has two names and two presentations; > the experiment below shows that clearly there are other differences > as well. I think `strongly' is an overstatement since the manual page says the two parameters `may otherwise be manipulated as normal' and indicates that only the scalar can be exported. However, it's certainly not particularly useful that -U works that way. It's more useful with some of the other flags where you might want different padding (-L, -R, -Z) or you might want to hide the value (-H) for just one of the parameters, or mark just one of them as readonly (-r), even though these are probably less used features. The only really good reason for not changing this is that it makes a mess of the internals to grope around for the alternative parameter just in the case where they are tied and just for certain flags. I expect the documentation could be made more explicit, though. -- Peter Stephenson Software Engineer CSR Ltd., Science Park, Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WH, UK Tel: +44 (0)1223 392070 ********************************************************************** The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. **********************************************************************