On Fri, Oct 06, 2006 at 12:04:47AM +0200, Axel Liljencrantz wrote: > The 'local' and 'global' names are used in so many other languages > that it is very probable that most fish users will be familiar with > the terms.
in which languages? i absolutely do not have that perception. and even then i do not consider shell script a full programming language, so i do not think the terms qualify. sh does not have a concept of variable scopes (unless you count export) global variables in programming languages are usualy perceived as something bad, so some modern programming languages do not even support them. and also given that within a shell, external programs are part of the shell language, which would imply that global variables are available to external programs as well. but given that this is not the case unless they are exported, a global variable in a programming language just feels like something totally different from an environment variable in a shell. > As to 'universal', 'system-wide' is slightly better as well, though it > might be confused with some kind of 'system variables', i.e. some kind > of read only variables that tell you the current system state. i am unaware of the existance of such variables. > Also, I think that the name 'universal' fits in very will with the > pattern of local and global. yes, but it makes me think that this is something that can be shared across multiple machines. global makes me think of system-wide (consider the term "world-readable" actually meaning readable system-wide.) > It's a whole metaphore where the distance from the > user also reflects the ordering. yes, that's a nice part about it. greetings, martin. -- cooperative communication with sTeam - caudium, pike, roxen and unix offering: programming, training and administration - anywhere in the world -- pike programmer travelling and working in europe open-steam.org unix system- bahai.or.at iaeste.(tuwien.ac|or).at administrator (caudium|gotpike).org is.schon.org Martin Bähr http://www.iaeste.or.at/~mbaehr/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys -- and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Fish-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fish-users
