Adding Unicode operators to D

[Bill Baxter]

On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 1:33 PM, Steven Schveighoffer
<schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote:
> "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 ;)

Yeh, I love the bash shell.  Really the only thing keeping me from
using it for D work is the fact that it won't auto-complete Windows
filenames.

--bb