Associative array index.

[Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm sure we've had this discussion but the behaviour is still inconsistent.
The lexer and the parameter code disagree over the handling of associative
array indices.

% typeset -A foo
% foo=("'" ouch)
% print $foo['
quote> 

but

% print $foo[']'
ouch

Maybe the lexer can be educated, but doing it this way we are always going
to have problems with any expression with `]' in it, especially since no
form of quoting works in the [...].  I'd prefer to do it the way perl does
it, which is if you want quoting you add it yourself.  The current way of
doing it is supposed to be like a double-quoted string, but it isn't, as
this example shows.  I should offer a prize for anyone able to extract
the value of
  foo=("]" ouch)
by direct indexing.  Indirect indexing using a parameter is OK, although
this can get confused, too.

% print ${nonexistent:-"]"}
]
% print $foo[${nonexistent:-"]"}]
zsh: parse error

which shows how thoroughly horrible it is.

-- 
Peter Stephenson <pws@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cambridge Silicon Radio, Unit 300, Science Park, Milton Road,
Cambridge, CB4 0XL, UK                          Tel: +44 (0)1223 392070