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Re: Annoying zsh completion




As Peter said, your problem is clearly in correction.  I just
mentioned that zstyle as it can also impact similar behavior in the
completion realm.  To get to the bottom of your issue, I would start
by answering the questions Bart asked.

This might not be the place for it but let me just rant a little bit: It seems to me that all sh's are suffering from something that you might call syntax implosion. The native syntax/grammar is so complicated, and so full of little tweeks and 'features' and gotchas and exceptions and so on, that it looks to me like it's become an intractable mess that is collapsing under its own weight. It gets to the point where the layers and layers of patches and fixes are now beyond anyone's comprehension. It reminds me of the American government that is now so bloated and corrupt and huge and unmanageable that 'repair' becomes impossible and we just have to wait for the inevitable meltdown and then start again with a clean sheet of paper. I've heard that perl suffers from the same general problem.

For me, after a few months learning (trying to learn) bash, and now zsh, it is such a pleasure to return to C, where the essential syntax is dead simple, and where all 'complexities' are handled, not by the syntax of C itself, but by functions:

MyFantasicStringExtractor(str1, inta, intb, charx, ....)

That does whatever you want it to in the way of all that string extraction, replacement stuff that makes up 1/2 of sh grammar -- but does it without burdening the syntax of C in even the slightest way. The function stands on its own. Want to use it? Read the definition and know how it works. Or replace it with something better - C *itself* doesn't care. Because C itself is so simple and robust, there are no gotchas, no need for patches no fuss, no muss, no bother.

Sorry, I won't do it again unless you guys say it's OK.

Ray



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