Re: [RFC PATCH 0/3] Improve defaults

[Mikael Magnusson <mikachu@gmail.com>]

n 8/24/22, Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com> wrote:
> It doesn't make much sense to specify so many options when simple
> defaults can do it.
>
> So instead of this:
>
>     HISTFILE ~/.histfile
>     HISTSIZE 1000
>     SAVEHIST 1000
>
> We can just do:
>
>     HISTFILE ~/.histfile
>
> I personally don't see the need to specify a file when virtually every
> software dumps their history by default, but it's a start.

I have a keybind that toggles history on/off, so if i know i'm going
to be running eg 'make' and './someprogram' alternatingly a bunch of
times, i don't pollute my history with it. It used to be implemented
by unsetting HISTFILE (it uses the zshaddhistory() hook now, but
others may still do it the other way), so it would be quite an
incompatible change.

> From what I can see most people simply set SAVEHIST to HISTSIZE, so it
> makes sense to have a value to make them equal by default. I used -1.

In my experience having magical defaults usually leads to more
confusion, not less. (Not a strong argument against these particular
patches perhaps.)

> I've tried for a while have the most minimal .zshrc file that is useful,
> and never is that small. This should help.

As you're in the process of finding out, part of the reason the
minimal useful .zshrc is not that small is that people have very
varying preferences as to what should be in there.

-- 
Mikael Magnusson