On Fri, Jan 5, 2024 at 2:50 PM Ray Andrews <rayandrews@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:There really isn't any "parsing" per se -- internally, an "active"pattern character is represented differently than its literal counterpart.
No way to see that unfold? Anyway your word 'active' is the
thing: Is that literal or is it active? I know it's several
decades too late to do anything about it, but if we had to do it
all over again, I'd advocate for clear and *visible* ways of
coding one or the other. Mind ... when expanding a variable ...
back to tildes! A variable is by definition a symbol but what it
contains could be another symbol or something literal. Logical
completion would demand arbitrary nesting of any combination.
That's further than I need to go right now.
But you know, it would save much grief if someone told you this
up front but nobody does: "One of the endless problems with zsh --
or any other shell -- is that there are places where entered
characters are presumed to be literal -- but can be forced to
indicate some action or command -- and other places where entered
characters are presumed to be actions -- but can be forced to
become literal characters." ... such a sentence would have saved
endless grief if I'd read it on my first day using zsh. As always
I'm ruined by my knowledge of C, where there is never the
slightest doubt.