Re: PATCH: 3.1.2-zefram3: history completion

[Peter Stephenson <pws@ifh.de>]

Andrej Borsenkow wrote:
> I like the idea, but I totally disagree with implementation (sorry). It
> continues the trend to add to base ZSH every feature someone finds to be
> useful. I strongly believe, that base zsh must provide general enough
> tools to do such sort of things in user space (or as separate module if
> anybody will suffer from performance).

I certainly agree in principle, but in practice I tend to find that
making the shell general enough to extend makes it much larger than
it was when it was handling lots of little things itself (even if the
changes allow modularality --- and remember we're talking about changes
to the zle module here), takes much longer, and makes the shell more
complex, and consequently less usable for the 99% of users who just want
to push a button to do what they want.  This is what I was referring to
when I suggested having a widget associated with a particular compctl (or,
equivalently, allowing a direct form of compctl in a zle function).  If it
happens (which means if Zefram has time to do it) it will require fiddling
through the manual before use, and consequently 99% of users will never
know it exists, some fraction of which would otherwise have used it.  Sad
but true.  Compare this with the dozen or two lines of functional code
in the patch I sent, available now, not next year, instantly usable,
not requiring a half hour with a manual, and doing the most commonly
requested form of ad hoc completion.  On balance, I'd prefer a more
general solution, too, but I've a strong feeling I may be wrong.

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@ifh.de>       Tel: +39 50 911239
WWW:  http://www.ifh.de/~pws/
Gruppo Teorico, Dipartimento di Fisica
Piazza Torricelli 2, 56100 Pisa, Italy