Enhancing the user experience with tcsh
Gavin Atkinson
gavin.atkinson at ury.york.ac.uk
Fri Feb 10 16:41:44 UTC 2012
On Fri, 2012-02-10 at 11:25 -0500, Eitan Adler wrote:
> Picking a random email to reply to.
>
> My goal with this email is to reduce the amount of "controversial" changes.
I applaud this. I've often considered doing the same but avoided it
because it was easier than fighting the bikeshed :)
> commit 3ea4ea3a59d14cb060244618dd89d7dd0170bee1
> diff --git a/etc/root/dot.cshrc b/etc/root/dot.cshrc
> --- a/etc/root/dot.cshrc
> +++ b/etc/root/dot.cshrc
> @@ -7,9 +7,10 @@
>
> alias h history 25
> alias j jobs -l
> -alias la ls -a
> +alias la ls -aF
> alias lf ls -FA
> -alias ll ls -lA
> +alias ll ls -lAF
> +alias ls ls -F
>
> Two people didn't like these changes but didn't explain why. This is
> incredibly helpful, especially for a new user. If you dislike the
> alias change please explain what bothers you about it?
I don't use the first two aliases, so I don't care about them at all. I
do however disagree strongly with changing the default options on such a
widely used command.
This change is disruptive, and it can affect use of ls(1) in scripts.
For example, it even sticks the extra characters in the output of
"ls -1" (the number 1), which is specifically designed to be used when
piping the output elsewhere. Please do not break this. It is also
distracting - If I want to see what type of file a particular entry is,
why not just run "ls -l"?
It's like the tendency some Linux distributions have of
"alias mv mv -i", although that can at least be overridden on the
command line with "-f". The "ls -F" change cannot be overridden without
unaliasing.
> if ($?prompt) then
> # An interactive shell -- set some stuff up
> - set prompt = "`/bin/hostname -s`# "
> + set prompt = "[%n@%m]%c04%# "
> + set promptchars = "%#"
>
> Many people had alternative suggestions for the prompt. Can you please
> clarify why you believe your prompt should be the _default_ one?
I can't comment as I didn't say my suggestion should be default - but
for me the above isn't a bad choice. I would however prefer:
set prompt = "%n@%m:%c04 %# "
and not
set prompt = "[%n@%m]%c04%# "
as that then gives you user at host:path in exactly the same format as you
need to use with scp, etc.
> > I use the $HOME/bin on my machines but I am not so sure to make this a general thing.
>
> Many people expect it, and given that it is the last item in the path
> it won't affect all that much.
It's been in there forever. I think this should stay, it would just be
too disruptive otherwise.
Gavin
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