Re: pushd/popd/dirs for es

[Richard Brooksby <richard@harlequin.co.uk>]

pete@minster.york.ac.uk wrote:

> byron%netapp@netcom.com (Byron Rakitzis) wrote:
>
> > 	With respect, I believe this discussion is a little overblown.
> > 
> > 	I don't find anything wrong with shadowing /bin/pwd, but I
> > 	wouldn't like to see something like that in a "default
> > 	distribution".
> 
> Seconded. ...

I agree, but would also say that this rule applies to any
`distribution'.  If you're distributing code for general use you
should treat it as an extension to the `default distribution' and not
do anything so dangerous as redefining pwd.  Some people will want to
imagine their file system as a tree, some will need the information
about the graph.  You might suggest rebinding pwd in the README, but
don't do it by default.

> We are heading into a rather dubious area here, in which individual
> taste is really less important than getting the basics right. Let's
> just have simple, clean primitives which we can rely upon to work as
> advertised. Leave the fancy stuff for your own .esrc; keep the
> distributed version of the shell as straightforward as possible!

I have used rc for a long time and have just discovered es.  I am very
pleased by the first-class functional behaviour, but not so happy
about the size of initial.es.  The man page is right: ``Too many
creatures have fept in.''
---
Richard Brooksby <richard@harlequin.co.uk>
ML Project / Symbolic Processing Division / Harlequin
+44 223 872522