Adding Unicode operators to D

[Steven Schveighoffer]

"Benji Smith" wrote
> Bill Baxter wrote:
>> On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Benji Smith <dlanguage at benjismith.net> 
>> wrote:
>>> Yigal Chripun wrote:
>>>> Bill Baxter wrote:
>>>>> On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 9:15 AM, Sergey Gromov <snake.scaly at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Sat, 25 Oct 2008 06:43:19 +0900,
>>>>>> Bill Baxter wrote:
>>>>>>> On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 6:37 AM, ore-sama <spam at here.lot> wrote:
>>>>>>>> Bill Baxter Wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> (like I haven't been able to figure out how to get the
>>>>>>>>> DOS console in Windows to display UTF-8)
>>>>>>>> Console is a legacy technology (you even still call it "DOS"), why
>>>>>>>> expect features from it?
>>>>>>> So tell me what the alternative is?  I had trouble with running D
>>>>>>> tools from a Cygwin shell.  Can't remember if I tried MSYS or not.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Anyone using a shell for Windows that works and supports UTF-8
>>>>>>> properly?
>>>>>> A regular Windows console supports UTF-8 to some extent:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> * Change console font to Lucida Console
>>>>>> * issue "chcp 65001"
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You can even get more fonts into there with a bit of hackery.
>>>>> I did that but "type <filewith-utf8.txt>"  still prints garbage.
>>>>>
>>>>> --bb
>>>> so don't use type. use notepad instead...
>>>> notepad <filewith-utf8.txt>
>>>> also, MSYS gives you all the linux tools if you really need to be shell
>>>> only.
>>>> last resort: nothing stops you from implementing your own "cat"
>>>> application in D with full Unicode support.
>>>>
>>>> most if not all linux shell tools are separate executables anyway and 
>>>> if
>>>> any still do not support unicode it'll be trivial to roll your own
>>>> replacements for the bad ones.
>>> Oh, and one of my favorite tricks in Windows is to install cygwin 
>>> (usually
>>> at "C:\cygwin" or whatever their boneheaded installer insists on using) 
>>> and
>>> then add the bin path ("C:\cygwin\bin") to the windows PATH.
>>>
>>> That way, I can continue using the ordinary windows shell (which I 
>>> prefer,
>>> since it doesn't force me to use the nutty directory names that the 
>>> cygwin
>>> shell uses), but I can still access all the linux commands.
>>>
>>> Calling grep from a windows shell is the bestest!
>>
>> But that has the same problem.  Cygtools don't understand windows
>> paths so barf when you say "grep c:\foo.txt"  But the Windows shell
>> only will only autocomplete Windows-style paths.
>>
>> I've found the gnuwin32 tools to work a little better on that front.
>>
>> --bb
>
> Wha???
>
> The "grep" tool doesn't read the path. The *shell* interprets the path and 
> passes the text to the program. That's how all the gnu tools are able to 
> pipe their results from one tool to the other.
>
> Or at least, that's how I assume it works.

No, grep accepts either input.  The shell does not change paths to windows 
style, that is what cygpath is for.  But it does interpret backslashes, so 
you have to double all those.

So for instance, in a cygwin shell, this works also:

grep -i "SHAZZAM" C:\\Documents\ and\ Settings\\benji\\Desktop\\my\ 
filename\ with\ spaces.txt

The arguments are passed as they are, grep just is smart enough to use 
either one.  Probably many tools are that way, I wouldn't know because I 
usually do the /cygdrive/c/... form.

> The key is to never never never use the cygwin shell. It's a piece of 
> garbage. But using the executables from the "cygwin\bin" directory within 
> the windows shell... Priceless!

Without the cygwin shell, you lose all bash features, like for, or backticks 
to execute a command and use it's output.  The paths are a minor annoyance 
IMO.  Using the cmd.exe shell is ok for simple tasks, but it pales severely 
in comparison to the power of bash.

So piece of garbage it is not.  Something you don't understand how to use 
properly? definitely ;)

-Steve