Re: [RFC PATCH 3/3] FAQ: sync newuser-install

[Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net>]

On 2022-08-30 14:31:30 -0500, Felipe Contreras wrote:
> Yes, but "we" are zsh veterans. We don't need a simpler .zshrc, but
> newcomers do.

Having a too simple .zshrc file is not helping them. Rather than
hidden defaults, I think that it is better to have explicit values
in some default .zshrc file, so that it is easier to change them.
In particular, the default depends very much on the usage.

I currently use HISTSIZE=8000 SAVEHIST=8000, and while this value
is OK on some machines, I've noticed that I sometimes lose commands,
and indeed, after a look, this gives me only a 12-day history on my
main machine, while I would have thought that it would be several
weeks (I wish I could set a minimum time limit for the history).

And there's more than the history. I suspect that many users would
like "bindkey -e", a better prompt and better completions than the
default. But such things could only be in a default .zshrc file,
because there are no good hardcoded defaults.

> > It's not a lot.  It's still two lines.  Using an impressive-looking
> > percentage doesn't change this.
> 
> It's not a lot to you, because you already know what those two lines do.
> 
> Nobody is going to write those two lines for a newcomer, he will have
> to read two entries in the manual to understand what those two lines
> do, and even then might not necessarily get it.

Not if these lines are put in a default .zshrc file, with minimum
documentation (in case the user would want to change them without
having to read all the details in the manual).

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)