Re: Spending time in PS1, was Re: [RFC/PATCH] shortstatus v1

From: Sitaram Chamarty <sitaramc@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 10, 2009, 17:31 UTC
Message-ID: <slrngp3ef2.a51.sitaramc@sitaramc.homelinux.net>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.1.00.0902101120460.10279@pacific.mpi-cbg.de>

On 2009-02-10, Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> wrote:

Show 10 quoted lines

> Hi,
>
> On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, Sitaram Chamarty wrote:
>
>> I wonder if I could ask people opinions on a trick I pulled, which is 
>> basically maintain a state of the value of $SECONDS each time the user 
>> is shown a bash prompt.  If the value is the same as last time (meaning 
>> he hit enter twice in a row very quickly), it runs the extra stuff.
>
> As you know, I am a big fan of consistency.  In this light, I do not like

Actually no; I haven't been here long enough yet.

> it when I am shown something at times, and at other times not.

However, it seems to me that this discussion is about reconciling two conflicting needs:

  - some people (not all) want certain info in the prompt
  - but getting that info is expensive so it shouldn't be in
    the prompt *all* the time

Such a conflict might well be served by showing something sometimes, and at other times not. A little bit of DWIMmery, if you will...

In any case, one can always alias something to a single letter (say "s") if one needs quick but not "in your face" access to this info, making this whole discussion moot if it should not be *in* the prompt.