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Zsh is your friend.

mikegrouchy.com

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Re: Zsh is your friend.

#71

Post by bwarp »

LeafStorm wrote: post #3

While from what I have read about it zsh is a nice shell, it doesn't deal with what I find to be the biggest problem with bash, sh, and just about every shell that isn't fish: the horribly ugly and inconsistent syntax. And I think it's rather sad that on what is supposedly the most advanced shell of our generation, you still have to deal with a thousand ridiculous redirections and quoting styles, different delimiter…

You've obviously never used PowerShell then if you think *sh are horrible ugly and inconsistent!

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#72

Post by dbbo »

richardlblair wrote: post #20
dbbo wrote: post #10

Due to the poor spelling and grammar, gross oversimplification of zsh's advantages, and the inclusion of oh-my-zsh as a reason to switch, I found this post insulting (as a long time zsh user). And I actually want more people to use zsh, because that would mean more collaboration, more tips, and better script compatibility.

Due to the major douchebaggery, gross misunderstanding of the purpose of this article, and inclusion of your "long time user" status, I can't take you comment seriously. Perhaps the purpose of this article is too complicated for your oversimplified brain. As a "long time" computer user I appreciate Mr. Grouchy taking the time to outline some of the finer things zsh has to offer. If you REALLY wanted people to adopt z…

I suppose having and stating an opinion that isn't kissing someone's ass makes me a douchebag according to richardlblair. I think I can live with that.

All Mr. Grouchy did was give a couple examples of completion and oh-my-zsh. I think you would have to be really fed up with bash or whatever default shell your system has to take that bait. I never said I expected him to write a complete job. I just think there are better arguments to be made.

In fact, there are hundreds of posts on HN that give someone's evangelical tale of trying a new program, and several about zsh. This one is far from exceptional in my mind.

To me, it was like saying "You should buy a Tesla Model S because they are really fast."

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#73

Post by dbbo »

mgrouchy wrote: post #16
dbbo wrote: post #10

Due to the poor spelling and grammar, gross oversimplification of zsh's advantages, and the inclusion of oh-my-zsh as a reason to switch, I found this post insulting (as a long time zsh user). And I actually want more people to use zsh, because that would mean more collaboration, more tips, and better script compatibility.

If my grammer is shitty, thats fine, never said my grammar/spelling/etc was amazing, just Zsh. This post was intended as a nice introductory shoutout to Zsh. Oh-my-zsh is a great way for someone to get started with zsh if they wanted to try it out. It was never meant to be a complete guide to Zsh, and I wasn't going to list all the features, just a few that people who don't know anything about Zsh might be interested…

When you submit an article that you wrote to HN you could at least have the decency to spend 5 minutes proofreading it, couldn't you?

oh-my-zsh is a great way for lazy people to get fancy features without having to look at the easily accessible manual ( http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Doc/ ) or even the user friendly guide ( http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Guide/ ).

I never said I expected you to list every feature. That's a pretty ridiculous hyperbole on your part.

I also wasn't "trying to give [you] a hard time". I was merely expressing my opinion. I'm sorry that you can't handle any criticism.

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#74

Post by mixmastamyk »

pyre wrote: post #59
mixmastamyk wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here, the syntax highlighting rocks (I couldn't go back now), and I do like the shared history. For simple non-interactive scripts I still use bash because of its ubiquity, python for complex needs.

> I do like the shared history. Maybe the implementation is different, but ZShell has shared history. (Just noting that this is not a 'fish rocks other shells because of X' feature)

Yep, this thread is currently under several comments talking/complaining about zsh shared history. I'm in the "appreciate" camp.

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#75

Post by thenduks »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #19

- I'm using bash on Ubuntu. When I type "kill " I get a list of process numbers, not the list of files in my current directory as you imply. - shared history sounds like a bug, not a feature. I have long lived terminals open, each dedicated to a specific purpose. Shared history would intermingle them. - typing `gut` in bash gives me: No command 'gut' found, did you mean: Command 'cut' from package 'coreutils' (main)…

How about the fact that zsh enforces that you spend a certain amount of time per day just contemplating your existence:

    % time zsh -c exit
    zsh -c exit  0.22s user 0.21s system 97% cpu 0.436 total
    $ time bash -c exit
    bash -c exit  0.00s user 0.00s system 83% cpu 0.004 total
Typing too early will just blackhole your keystrokes, of course, so no cheating!

Or how about how when using an RPROMPT it makes copy/pasting stuff out of the terminal infuriate your IM buddies?

:)

Actually these are downsides, let's try fish instead, maybe?

    % brew install fish
    % fish
    zsh: correct 'fish' to 'vis' [nyae]? GRRR

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#76

Post by nickolai »

I used to use a lot of zsh at work, and one thing that drove me nuts was overzealous wildcard expansion.

  >scp server2:~/folder/* .
zsh: no matches found: server2:~/folder/*

nothing in current work dir matches 'server2:~/folder/ * ', so zsh helpfully yells at me. yeah I know use single quotes to avoid expansion, and backslash should work too. It makes total sense because * is a reserved character, but still, bash got it. surely Zsh could've too ?

It probably got fixed since then, but this raw frustration is my most vivid memory from zsh usage.

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#77

Post by ilaksh »

tlvince wrote: post #56

If you're looking for the "keyboard navigable completion list", this what you want: zstyle ':completion:*' menu select

I tried that and about a million other things in Ubuntu. When I hit tab I see options, but nothing I put in my .zshrc will allow me to use the arrow keys or anything else to navigate the completion list.

I am using oh my zsh but I tried turning it off and it didn't seem to matter.

Maybe only Mac users use zsh?

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#78

Post by satiani »

nickolai wrote: post #76

I used to use a lot of zsh at work, and one thing that drove me nuts was overzealous wildcard expansion. >scp server2:~/folder/* . zsh: no matches found: server2:~/folder/* nothing in current work dir matches 'server2:~/folder/ * ', so zsh helpfully yells at me. yeah I know use single quotes to avoid expansion, and backslash should work too. It makes total sense because * is a reserved character, but still, bash got…

This behavior can be turned off by adding this to .zshrc:

  setopt no_nomatch # if there are no matches for globs, leave them alone and execute the command
zsh also tries to autocomplete directory names using variables in global namespace that point to directories. I found that behavior maddening and can be turned off with:

  setopt no_cdable_vars # don't use named directories in cd autocompletion

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#79

Post by heresy »

I agree, though I'd probably suggest working from a simple zshrc for starters ("man zshall" is also your friend).

I just spent a bit of time yesterday tweaking information in my prompt just so:

http://imgur.com/OSEB3

And it's made a huge quality of life difference to what I had before.

Worth spending a bit of time making your shell environment optimized for yourself though, and not just copying someone else's setup, in my opinion.

You spend a lot of time there, programming for UNIX, why not make it rock?

Re: Zsh is your friend.

#80

Post by bsagert »

Thanks mgrouchy for another site that breaks pgdn. The header that never moves hides some lines on the next page. Reading becomes an annoying series of page downs then scroll up a bit to read the hidden sentences. Does this annoy anyone else?
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