JShell /-n command

[Brian Goetz]

This is derived from a feature from Unix shells, which I use all the 
time; frequently you have a sequence of "do this, then do that, then do 
the other thing", and doing "-n" repeatedly handles that sequence.  
Easier than "hit up arrow five times, return, repeat".

On 10/12/2016 5:15 PM, Robert Field wrote:
> I agree this isn't useful and is confusing -- for another reason too 
> -- from /help:
>
> | /<id> -- re-run snippet by id
> | /-<n> -- re-run n-th previous snippet
>
> So /3 refers to a snippet-id and /-3 refers to a count backwards.
>
> I've never used the /-n form.  For one, the up-arrow is much more 
> convenient.
>
> Unless I hear an strong advocate, I will remove.
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
>
> On 10/12/16 09:55, Paul Deitel wrote:
>> Is the command
>>
>>     /-n
>>
>> actually useful? Chances are, if you have any decent number of 
>> snippets, you will not recall more than the last few you typed.
>>
>> You can already execute the last valid snippet with /!.
>>
>> For anything else, you’d probably have to do a /list to see what 
>> valid snippets you have. At that point, rather than doing /-n, you’d 
>> just use /<id> to execute a given snippet.
>>
>> One point of emphasis in many JShell presentation has been how it’s 
>> useful for beginners. I’ve been teaching beginning programmers for 
>> 25+ years. A beginner seeing options like this will only get confused.
>>
>> I recommend removing /-n as an option.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> Paul J. Deitel, CEO
>> Deitel & Associates, Inc.
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>