UI review: jshell commands

[Paul Sandoz]

On Jun 29, 2015, at 8:40 PM, Robert Field <robert.field at oracle.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 2.  I recommend we drop the one-letter shortcuts, for several reasons:
>> 
>> - Such tricks always cause evolution problems.  One day, we'll add a new command whose first letter conflicts with that of an existing command, and which arguably has a superior claim to that short form.
>> 
>> - Tab-completion works against / commands.  So users looking to save keystrokes can use tab completion; the one-letter version now saves only the tab keystroke.
>> 
>> - The commands are not that frequently typed, compared to evaluating expressions.  So the extra keystroke savings (especially given tab completion) are not worth it.
>> 
>> In short, I don't think they pull their weight.
> 
> Makes sense
> And I use the shortcuts — well, a few of them.
> Would love other’s thoughts.
> 

I don't mind longer names with tab completion. The history commands, probably the most common kind of command, are appropriately short.


>> 
>> 3.  I don't think we ever came to consensus on /edit.  Right now, the popup editor says "experimental"; did we declare success or failure on this experiment?  I thought we were leaning towards dropping it.
> 
> Right, no closure on the default simple window.
> Other’s thoughts?
> 

When i typed /edit i got a "nice" surprise, one that i did not really appreciate :-) as i was expecting the current line to be populated with the source (e.g. the result of pressing up-arrow X times), rather than an AWT window popping up with that source.

Paul.