🚀 go-pugleaf

A nice hello :-)

I gave bash a try recently and am quite impressed by the product.
Great thanks to those who provide us with such a tool!  I never really
liked csh syntax, but used tcsh anyway for its Emacs-like history
editing.  Bash allows me to go (forward) away from both.

I write to both bfox@ai.mit.edu and bug-bash@wheaties.ai.mit.edu, not
knowing exactly which address I should prefer.  Would someone please
acknowledge this message if it reaches its proper destination?

Here are a few comments, bug reports or suggestions about bash.

* The ``help'' command is useful.  The idea might be extended so to
  give a few words about each variable having a special meaning to the
  shell.  Not specifying a variable could list all such variables.

* ``help ['' is not accepted, but ``help test'' is.  However, ``[''
  is present in ``help'' summary, ``test'' is not.  This could be
  clarified a little.

* If this was easily feasible, some kind of describe-bindings or
  apropos in Readline would be helpful, too.

* The ``type'' command does not always behave according to its
  documentation.  The following:

	which () { echo `type -type $*`; }
	which which

  returns ``function file''.  Should'nt it return a single word?

* By the way, is there a way to remove a function?  Some kind of
  ``unfunction which''?

* C-l, clear-screen, clears the current command line and redraws it.
  According to the documentation (in FEATURES), it is supposed to
  clear the whole screen.  I would rather bring the documentation in
  accordance with the behaviour than the other way around (*sigh*),
  but in any case, documentation and behaviour should agree.

* M-?, asking for a completion list, seems to produce lines at end of
  which there are useless, extraneous spaces.

* expand-line (M-C-e) does expand aliases and backquotes, however, it
  does not expand tildes, accolades and other patterns, as I was
  expecting it to do.  I would have liked to request:

	print * M-C-e

  and then, to edit out a few files I would not print, say.

* Long line edits are one character off if not in the leftmost part.
  (Hum, this one is harder to describe...)  On a more than non-empty
  directory (:-), please try:

	echo `ls` M-C-e C-a

  and move the cursor with C-f past the right edge of the screen.
  This should redisplay another piece of the line within < and >.  If
  you continue moving with C-f, you will notice that the cursor slowly
  ``rewrites'' the line one character to the left.  Playing a little
  on this theme might uncover other similar bugs, too.

* In prompts, \# is supposed to be the command number.  Even if there
  was a saved history, the command number starts at 1 for a new shell.
  However, the command numbers showned with ``history'' do take into
  account the previous, saved commands.  Would'nt it be easier for the
  user if those command numbers were coinciding?

--
Franc,ois Pinard                                    pinard@iro.umontreal.ca
(514) 588-4656           ``Vivement GNU!''          ...!uunet!iros1!pinard