Re: PATCH: 3.1.2-zefram3: history completion

[Bruce Stephens <B.Stephens@xxxxxxxxx>]

pws@xxxxxx said:
> This is what I was referring to when I suggested having a widget
> associated with a particular compctl (or, equivalently, allowing a
> direct form of compctl in a zle function).  If it happens (which means
> if Zefram has time to do it) it will require fiddling through the
> manual before use, and consequently 99% of users will never know it
> exists, some fraction of which would otherwise have used it.

Indeed.  There's a (minimal) danger that things split (like emacs/xemacs), 
with some people feeling that the base installation ought to be relatively 
small but very configurable, and others feeling that the default installation 
ought to present users with a more functionally rich product.

I think there's a bit of a danger with the minimalist view that zsh OOTB might 
look identical to ksh, in which case why would users bother to look further?  
On the other hand, there's a danger that zsh might be horribly slow as a 
scripting shell because of all the wacky features that are nice for 
interactive users, or where it's just about impossible to remove the default 
features that annoy you without removing everything.

Presumably there's some compromise where people can build/install zsh and get 
a nice shell with some useful completions, useful zle behaviour, and possibly 
even a useful prompt.  Maybe a graphical/menu driven configuration tool for 
newish users which helps to set up template .zsh* files.  (I think there 
already is such a tool somewhere or other; if it's any good maybe the zsh docs 
should point at it.)

A (probably graphical) tool which introduced all of the features of zsh, and 
automatically configured those chosen would be quite nice.  Every now and 
again I read through the docs, and notice some unexpected feature I didn't 
know about.  Imagine how daunting zsh must be to users used to csh, or 
COMMAND.COM.