I really like the concepts and ideas behind fish. There is a
crying need for a shell that is easier for beginners to use.
Often the first time a beginner encounters "the shell" is when
they are stuck in a virtual console because X didn't start for
some reason. Therefore IMO it is of prime importance that fish
work well and as expected in the virtual consoles. It is
essential to make a good first impression.
I love that default the fish_greeting says "Type help for
instructions on how to use fish". Unfortunately, on my system,
there were several problems that kept the help function from
working properly in the virtual console. I see five things that
could help make the fish help system better for everyone,
especially for beginners who are stuck on a virtual console:
1) Make the help function more robust. This means doing a
better job at selecting a browser.
2) To this end remove dependence on the deprecated and out
of date htmlview command.
3) Update the help man page.
4) Perhaps a slightly more detailed fish_greeting.
5) The "help" command should lead to a simple tutorial or
"quick start" page. The fish user documentation it leads
to now seems like it would be very daunting for beginners.
I've already implemented everything in the list but number (5).
If no one objects, I will start a thread on each of these topics
in reply to this post. Otherwise, I can just start a new top
level thread for each topic.
Peace, James
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