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Re: why not promote the plague ? (brace|rc|alternative|modern) syntax

On 12/11/24 1:50 PM, Marc Chantreux wrote:

hello people,


On Sun, Dec 8, 2024 at 1:25 AM Lawrence Velázquez <larryv@xxxxxxx> wrote:

That's the whole point: it's not clear to me why short "if" and
short "while" behave differently when interrupted by EOF in a similar
way.  Is it a bug?  Or is the "while" body sneakily optional?


See the thread starting here:
https://www.zsh.org/mla/workers/2018/msg01398.html (workers/43595)


* most of zsh users just have no idea the alternative syntax exists
   because no one expect such a cool feature to be so hidden an discouraged.
* I really would like to know who are the "most of us" (where was it
   discussed? what are the arguments?)
* should we promote the plague (for exemple by accepting it in the
   completion code)?



Aside from the bug in the mentioned thread, the fact that core developers were
(and possibly still is) confused about expected behavior is enough to avoid the
alternative syntax. Many people that i learned from in IRC can't readily grok it
without a man page, sure some of that is probably due to lack of use but in
addition to bugs and fringe behavioral differences from the normal syntax i see
little gain in doing so apart from some people find it aesthetically pleasing.

Of the people that i've personally seen rave about it over the past 20 years,
it starts and stops with finding it aesthetically pleasing, nothing technical.
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