Re:Autocomplete as an Interface (2015)
by adrianmonk on Thursday January 16, 2020 @10:57AM
(#22065685)
Personally, I think neither bash nor zsh have the optimal behavior.
I agree with your point about the extra tab keystroke being useful before a giant list gets printed. I like that about bash.
But sometimes I hit tab too many times. I don't really count keystrokes, I just kind of mash the tab key until I get a list. And I don't need bash to print the list again if I hit tab an extra time. (This seems like it could be changed without breaking compatibility with anything. If you hit tab 3 times, don't print the list twice. Instead, only re-print the list if the string (that the completion is based off of) has changed.)
I guess I don't care too much either way about having the list in my scrollback buffer. I can see how it's useful to refer to it, at least while in the process of trying to use the completion.
I agree with your point about the extra tab keystroke being useful before a giant list gets printed. I like that about bash.
But sometimes I hit tab too many times. I don't really count keystrokes, I just kind of mash the tab key until I get a list. And I don't need bash to print the list again if I hit tab an extra time. (This seems like it could be changed without breaking compatibility with anything. If you hit tab 3 times, don't print the list twice. Instead, only re-print the list if the string (that the completion is based off of) has changed.)
I guess I don't care too much either way about having the list in my scrollback buffer. I can see how it's useful to refer to it, at least while in the process of trying to use the completion.