From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 3690 invoked from network); 16 Jan 1998 16:19:43 -0000 Received: from math.gatech.edu (list@130.207.146.50) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 16 Jan 1998 16:19:43 -0000 Received: (from list@localhost) by math.gatech.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id LAA23549; Fri, 16 Jan 1998 11:00:33 -0500 (EST) Resent-Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 11:00:33 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199801161602.RAA04256@hydra.ifh.de> To: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu (Zsh hackers list) Subject: Re: PATCH: 3.1.2-zefram3: history completion In-reply-to: "Andrej Borsenkow"'s message of "Fri, 16 Jan 1998 18:24:16 MET." Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 17:02:03 +0100 From: Peter Stephenson Resent-Message-ID: <"01WJj2.0.rl5.WGulq"@math> Resent-From: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/3724 X-Loop: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu Precedence: list Resent-Sender: zsh-workers-request@math.gatech.edu 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 Tel: +39 50 911239 WWW: http://www.ifh.de/~pws/ Gruppo Teorico, Dipartimento di Fisica Piazza Torricelli 2, 56100 Pisa, Italy