Re: small Eshell docfix

[John Wiegley <johnw@gnu.org>]

Emilio Lopes <eclig@gmx.net> writes:

> Eshell doesn't accept `\' as directory separator.  An besides the
> command interpreter in MS Windows doesn't has such a function
> (quoting to protect from alias expansion).  So, for MS Windows users
> there is no conflict or a tradition to be broken here.

Actually, Eshell does accept \ as a directory separator on Windows
systems.

Now, thinking about all this has led me to the following proposal:

There are two different aspects to what "*" at the beginning of a
command word does: 1) It causes aliases to be ignored, and 2) it
prefers the external version of a program to any Lisp-implemented
version.

In the case of 1, I agree the default should be \.  In the case of 2,
I believe the current use of "*" ought to remain.  Thus I propose
creating a new variable, and a bit of new code, so that the meaning of
initial * is kept, while initial \ is allowed for ignoring aliases.
(The use of initial \ can be made safe for Windows users by parsing it
only if no other backslashes occur in the command word, and no such
executable exists in the root directory).

If the meaning of 1 and 2 is to stay merged, I recommend keeping the
current default of *, because it has a deeper meaning than what \ does
for shell users (where it means only that aliases be ignored).

John