From 30cfa2a4450c7d5e018200b5ef7a799adc773df6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: liljencrantz Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 05:41:27 +1000 Subject: [PATCH] Add explanation to csh versus sh variable naming in docs. darcs-hash:20080108194127-75c98-b44c6f18607cf270fae16179cd0df3e84f980b91.gz --- doc_src/index.hdr.in | 7 +++++++ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc_src/index.hdr.in b/doc_src/index.hdr.in index a45a9d451..4d43f2f0a 100644 --- a/doc_src/index.hdr.in +++ b/doc_src/index.hdr.in @@ -931,6 +931,13 @@ values of most of these variables. - \c status, which is the exit status of the last foreground job to exit. - \c USER, which is the username. This variable can only be changed by the root user. +The names of these variables are mostly derived from the csh family of +shells and differ from the ones used by Bourne style shells such as +bash. The csh names where chosen because Bourne style names, such as +?, * and @ lead to significantly less readable code, and much larger +discoverability problems, and given the existence of tab completion, +the keystroke savings are minimal. + Variables whose name are in uppercase are exported to the commands started by fish, those in lowercase are not exported. This rule is not enforced by fish, but it is good coding practice to use casing to