Memnon Anon wrote:
> For example, when I tried to rephrase the paragraph in my last mail, I
> wasn't sure I quite knew what `token' actually meant. (If you search
> through the manual, you'll see the term is never explained.)
>
> This may be due to my lacking english skills, or a definition may be out
> of scope for this manual, because "everyone reading this should know
> that already" (which is a perfectly valid standpoint).
> Or finally it may simply be an oversight; if the writer uses that term
> all the time, he may think it is obvious to everyone.
The general meaning of the term 'token' can be looked up anywhere on the web
(e.g. wikipedia), still, a short definition of how the term is used in the
fish manual would be nice.
> (BTW.: "My
> keyboard has no meta key" made my smile for exactly that reason).
Made me smile, too, yet an explanation would be nice here, too (i.e. how
META is mapped to one of the 'real' keyboard keys).
> In that case, pointing it out is valid and valuable, no?
Yes.
> (FWIW, I just checked: bash manual has a section 'Definitions' right
> after the Introduction which mentions and concisely explains `token'.)
Right. On my system it says:
word
A sequence of characters considered as a single unit by the
shell. Also known as a token.
This is good enough for most purposes.
Occasionally one would like to have a more detailed specification available,
ideally as a set of regular expressions or a grammar in EBNF. Among other
things, a shell is a programming language, and as such it should have a
formal definition of (at least) its syntax (IMHO). The Manual proper could
contain a link or reference to this document.
Cheers
--
Ben Franksen
() ascii ribbon campaign - against html e-mail
/\ www.asciiribbon.org - against proprietary attachm€nts
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Try New Relic Now & We'll Send You this Cool Shirt
New Relic is the only SaaS-based application performance monitoring service
that delivers powerful full stack analytics. Optimize and monitor your
browser, app, & servers with just a few lines of code. Try New Relic
and get this awesome Nerd Life shirt! http://p.sf.net/sfu/newrelic_d2d_may
_______________________________________________
Fish-users mailing list
Fish-users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fish-users
