mirror of
https://github.com/nushell/nushell
synced 2024-12-28 14:03:09 +00:00
32 lines
912 B
Markdown
32 lines
912 B
Markdown
# Philosophy
|
|
|
|
> This document contains philosophical notes about nu.
|
|
|
|
## Bare Words
|
|
|
|
In Nu, bare words work the same way they do in most shells.
|
|
|
|
In most shells, bare words serve two purposes:
|
|
|
|
```bash
|
|
$ ls
|
|
# ^^ the name of a command
|
|
$ cat Cargo.toml
|
|
# ^^^^^^^^^^ a string
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
Nu adopts this shell idiom.
|
|
|
|
Consequences:
|
|
|
|
- Bare words cannot also refer to variables. Variable names are prefixed with `$`.
|
|
- Bare words, in almost all contexts, cannot be keywords.
|
|
- Numbers and operators aren't bare words.
|
|
|
|
## One Screen
|
|
|
|
The utility of a command's output drops off extremely rapidly after a full screen of content.
|
|
|
|
By default, Nu prefers to present output that can fit into a screen rather than more complete output that spans many screens.
|
|
|
|
For example, this is the rationale for `ls` returning a flat table containing the files in the current directory, rather than presenting a tree of data by default.
|