Re: zsh.texi commentary (actually, HTML pages commentary)

[Zoltan Hidvegi <hzoli@cs.elte.hu>]

> For the rest of these comments, I don't know which need to change the
> man pages, the FAQ, zsh.texi, and/or all of them; but they're all from
> reading the HTML at the above URL.

Undoubtadly there are things in the manual which is not very clear.  Any
patches are welcome.

> Aside:  Question about NO_RCS:
>     Commands are first read from `/etc/zshenv'. If the -f flag is
>     given or if the NO_RCS option is set within `/etc/zshenv', all
>     other initialization files are skipped.
> Why doesn't NO_RCS in any init file stop reading of any files that would
> normally follow the one where it is set?  Or does it, and the doc just
> doesn't explicitly say so?

No, the documentation is correct.

> Shell Grammar section:
> 
>     A simple command is a sequence of optional parameter assignments
>     followed by blank-separated words,
>                 ^^^^^
> Should this read "whitespace" or some such?  (Too early to mention $IFS.)

IFS is not used for that.  I think that blank and whitespace are synonyms.
whitespace may also include newline which cannot be used here.

> Aside:  What's the value of a command executed in the background?  E.g.
> 	if false & then echo Hmmm & fi
> Is it always consistent?

Backgrounded commands always have 0 exit status (that is explicitely
mentioned in POSIX 1003.2).

> Precommand modifiers, `exec', should explain that the "parent" zsh is
> replaced by the exec'd command, as if zsh had exited and the command
> was run in its place.

Also these are builins now, which is not yet documented.

> Aside:  Why doesn't `foreach name ( word ... )' need CSH_JUNKIE_PARENS?

foreach is a csh command and in csh that is the only way it works as I
know.  When someone uses foreach he is a already a csh junkie and the shell
knows that.

> Aside:  That it is possible to `disable -r fi' without first disabling
> `if', scares the willies out of me.  Simliarly for `done' and `esac'.

Yes, disable -r should be use very carefully.  But I do not think that any
change is necessary here.

> Aside:  Given the above behavior of `disable -r', it'd be nice to be able
> to get at the internal tokens for the disabled reserved words.  E.g.:
>     foo() { if true ; then echo This function keeps working ; fi }
>     alias endif=fi
>     disable -r fi
>     bar() { if true ; then echo I wish this still worked ; endif }
> Maybe an option to the alias builtin?

Aliases realy modify the input to the lexer.  I do not think that such a
feature is necessary.

> The paragraph on Comments still refers to HISTCHARS; it's now histchars.

Perhaps I should have mentioned it: I put back HISTCHARS and now both
histchars and HISTCHARS can be used.  But HISTCHARS is disabled in sh/ksh
mode.

> Only the "expression" part of identifier=expression is expanded, right?

Identifier is also expanded but it contains only letters, numbers and
underscore so there is nothing to expand.  I think that's clear.

> The following statement is false for ${name:#pattern}, is it not?
>     If the colon is omitted from one of the above expressions
>     containing a colon, then the shell only checks whether name
>     is set or not, not whether it is null.

Yes, but there the form without a colon is also documented.

> There's something odd here:
>     Arithmetic Expansion
> 
>     A string of the form $[exp] is substituted with the value of
>     the arithmetic expression exp. exp is subjected to parameter
>     expansion, command substitution and arithmetic expansion before
>                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>     it is evaluated. See section Arithmetic Evaluation. 
> Is this wrong, or is it just a goofy way of saying that $[exp] can be
> nested?  (Which doesn't seem to be true, so that's not it.)

It should be possible to nest arithmentic exansions.  Unfortunately
$[$[...]] does not work, that's a bug, I'll fix it.  But $[$((...))] works.

> Why isn't ***/ mentioned anywhere?  That's like **/ except it follows
> symlinks, correct?

It is documented in the manual.

Zoltan