From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 24723 invoked from network); 10 Jun 1998 10:59:39 -0000 Received: from math.gatech.edu (list@130.207.146.50) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 10 Jun 1998 10:59:39 -0000 Received: (from list@localhost) by math.gatech.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id GAA05565; Wed, 10 Jun 1998 06:54:51 -0400 (EDT) Resent-Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 06:54:51 -0400 (EDT) From: Zefram Message-Id: <199806101055.LAA13182@taos.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: Variable namespaces, goals for ZLE, etc. To: schaefer@brasslantern.com (Bart Schaefer) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 11:55:36 +0100 (BST) Cc: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu In-Reply-To: <980609232639.ZM9523@candle.brasslantern.com> from "Bart Schaefer" at Jun 9, 98 11:26:39 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Resent-Message-ID: <"AukyE.0.uM1.xNcVr"@math> Resent-From: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu X-Mailing-List: archive/latest/4085 X-Loop: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu Precedence: list Resent-Sender: zsh-workers-request@math.gatech.edu Bart Schaefer wrote: > >} If we *don't* introduce a proper namespace scheme, I hate to think what >} will happen when modules gain the ability to define special parameters. > >I don't expect it'd be any worse than the current situation with external >programs having to come up with names for their environment variables. >If you can explain why a namespace like "zsh." is better than a simple >convention like "ZSH_", I'm willing to be persuaded. The advantage of a "zsh." prefix is that *nothing* currently relies on such a variable name existing or behaving in any particular manner, whereas "ZSH_" names are defined by POSIX to have no special semantics. I think it is reasonable for a script, for any shell, to be able to define parameters with any name, including "_" characters, without having to worry about whether (a future version of) the shell will attach unwanted semantics to the variable name. Of course, we can't do anything about "PATH", etc., but we *can* get zsh-specific variables out of the way, making zsh more reliably usable as a scripting language. -zefram