Re: zsh tips for "UNIX Power Tools"

[Oliver Kiddle <opk@u.genie.co.uk>]

Jerry Peek wrote:

> > Have you decided whether to include 3.1.x features? I can think of a few
> > completion related tips but the old completion system is probably going
> > to go and the new one has yet to appear in a final stable release.
> 
> I need to cover whatever version we can put on the CD-ROM with the book.
> I'm not sure when the CD's contents will need to be frozen.  But, in
> this case, because there are new features to describe, the new stable
> release would need to be out before either the book's text *or* the CD
> are frozen.  So I'm guessing we'd need 3.1.x by mid-May.  I haven't
> checked on that yet; do you think there's a chance?  Because this book
> will probably be out for several years before another new edition, I'd
> love to cover the newest zsh if I can.

I hope you don't mind me replying on the mailing list but I'm probably
not the best person to comment on when a 3.2/4.0 release will appear.
The best person to say is our official maintainer (Peter Stephenson) who
is away until middle/late of this month. His last word on the subject
however, was quite recent - in message 9699 on zsh-workers. There he
said that 3.1.7 should appear soon and that 4.0 will need to wait until
a few of the newer features have been tidied up and are more stable. I
can see that happening by mid-May if we commit to a some form of feature
freeze though the real developers probably have a better idea on how
long it might take.

To me it would seem sensible to try to get a new stable release out in
time for the book because any exposure to Zsh can only help in
converting people to it and covering 3.1.x features would provide more
scope for showing features which are really powerful and are unique to
zsh.

Anyway, it'd only be fair if we can come to some conclusion and get a
clear answer to Jerry. 3.1.6 was far more stable as far as I could tell
than many so called 'stable' releases of other software I know so would
it be unwise if 3.1.7 went onto the book's CD-ROM?

Oliver Kiddle