On 8/22/06, Axel Liljencrantz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [...] > You would be able to do both always, since they provide the same > functionality. The main differences are in discoverability and ease of > use. Relevant points:
I guess the only reason a builtin may be less discoverable than a variable is that there are much fewer variables (and that other shells use a variable). > * Fish uses a 'random' builtin instead of a $RANDOM varaible as bash > does, because it really is more a function than a variable (It changes > dynamically every time you use it, but always in the same order - > that's pretty far from how other variables work), and because I though > it would be easier to find out about a builtin than a function. By the way, is there a reason why "random" should not be an external program instead of a builtin? > * $history allows you to do neat things like array slicing because it > is an array and fish has some pretty nice tools for manipulating > arrays. [...] I think you are saying that if "history" was a builtin, then using array splicing would be more verbose: ``set history (history); echo $history[2]``. I guess this can be alleviated by using a hack like ``(history | get 2 4)``. Of course, it would be nicer if ``(history)[2 4]`` worked. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Fish-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fish-users
