Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They're not that bad (GNU coreutils is generally pretty good) and you usually remember the edge cases fairly quickly (eg `dd`). Sadly you get inconsistencies in all coding frameworks, whether it's semantic, function names in the core libraries or whatever. Generally this is all awful and low-level. Just see the UI interface difference between 'dd' and 'Copy File' on a Lisp Machine. The UI is worlds away. > UNIX she…
I suspect your argument is now more about personal preference than anything. So I'll just address a few specific points you've raise: > Generally this is all awful and low-level. Just see the UI interface difference between 'dd' and 'Copy File' on a Lisp Machine. The UI is worlds away. Well yeah, I did already example `dd` as an inconsistency. :) > You can do that on a Lisp Machine, too. With the difference that no p…
Lisp does nothing. It is a programming language.
> Just that I believe Bash et al to have a lower barrier of entry than Lisp
I doubt that, given how horrible Bash as a language and as a shell is. There is no reason why there can't be more sane command systems and better shell languages.
See the zsh documentation on completion:
http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Guide/zshguide06.html
This is all totally over the head of the average user.
_perforce_revisions() {
local rline match mbegin mend pfx
local -a rl
pfx=${${(Q)PREFIX}%%\#*}
compset -P '*\#'
# Numerical revision numbers, possibly with text.
if [[ -z $PREFIX || $PREFIX = ]]; then
# always allowed (same as none)
rl=($rl 0)
_call_program filelog p4 filelog \$pfx 2>/dev/null |
while read rline; do
if [[ $rline = (#b)'... #'()*\'(*)\' ]]; then
rl=($l "${match[1]}:${match[2]}")
fi
done
fi
# Non-numerical (special) revision names.
if [[ -z $PREFIX || $PREFIX != ]]; then
rl=($rl 'head:head revision' 'none:empty revision'
'have:current synced revision')
fi
_describe -t revisions 'revision' rl
}
Tell me that this piece of code has a 'low barrier of entry' or even a 'lower barrier of entry'.
It's just that a generation of experts has been self selected to find that usable.> but I was never arguing that UNIX shells are better Lisp to begin with
I was not talking about Lisp. I was talking about software. One could write much better command shells in C than what Unix shells offers. I understand that certain people find Unix like shells attractive. From a general user interface perspective they are horrible.