Subject: Re: vi-history-search(forward|backward) vicmd mappings
From: Bart Schaefer <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2016 10:41:59 -0800
List-Id: Zsh Workers List <zsh-workers.zsh.org>

On Jan 24, 11:30am, Larry Hynes wrote:
}
} I fail all of these tests, I'm afraid; I have a lifelong
} aversion to 'we've always done it that way'; I generally invoke
} history search at the beginning of a command line; and my muscle
} memory uses '?' to search backwards and '/' to search forwards.
} (And why wouldn't it - it's the correct approach.)

At the time, searching history at all was kind of a new thing, and
the users didn't grasp that "earlier" implied "backward."  I guess.
I have a vague recollection that originally there wasn't even a
different prompt for forward/backward (both used "/") but I may be
wrong about that.

It always seemed a little odd to me because to search using banghist
you type !?...? so why not also type ? to start search from vicmd?
I would have changed it a long time ago, but I've never been a user
of vi mode in the shell so didn't argue about it much, and then I
simply forgot about it.

Oliver has been the most active in updating the vi widget set lately.
Perhaps he has an opinion.