I *am* glad.... No, it's a meta tool that lets you understand your own code. You absolutely must remember it.
I quite understand! To know the trade, the first thing is to know the tools. Ironically my 'varis' is precisely a souped up: "printf debugging" tool and I will not endure that arrays with blanks will not show me the bleeding blanks. If I want the blanks unshown I will *ask* for them to be unshown. If I copy an array I want an exact duplicate *unless* I specify otherwise. If I'm typing a letter don't correct my spelling automatically, I'll *ask* for spellcheck if I want it. Sometimes you make a speling mestake on purpose. [/micro-rant]
As a self-taught zsheller working by myself I haven't the advantage of the 'up close and personal' chance to absorb culture and craft from experts like yourself. It's a bit like trying to learn Finnish over the internet talking to people who only speak Finnish when I myself don't yet know one word of it. But slowly, slowly things come clear. You guys are wonderfully patient. A single sentence can work wonders. Things you know so deeply you don't think they need to be mentioned. Eg. Bart saying that if it's not in quotes, or an expansion, then it's active. And if it is an expansion then '(P)' makes it active again. It blows away the fog. (And naturally there will be 17.02 exceptions -- 18.1 on Tuesday -- but it's a head start.)
BTW, speaking of tools, wouldn't it be nice to be able to step thru the code, one line at a time? Could do that with C back in the day.