Useless? Well then let me ask, why is your suggestion of constants so much more "useful"? alias -l someconst { return somevalue } would emulate a constant rather nicely. So why is your suggestion so much better?
How will it complicate code? I see it simplifying code. Instead of having, for example:
alias output_notice { echo -t @notices $1- }
alias output_msg { echo -t @msgs $1- }
alias my_notice {
.output_notice $1-
}
alias my_msg {
.output_msg $1-
}
where as with local aliases:
alias my_notice {
alias -l output { .echo -t @notices $1- }
.output $1-
}
alias my_msg {
alias -l output { .echo -t @msgs $1- }
.putput $1-
}
Now thats not the greatest example, but it shows the point. You no longer have to have super descriptive alias names or things like dosomething1 and dosomething2 to avoid naming conflicts. If the alias is only needed within a single alias, why not make it local?
And parser speed setbacks? Are you using a 286? I'm not, I'm using a relatively slow PC, and thats a 1.4Ghz. They already have processors more than double mine. The "speed setbacks" you are talking about are 10nanoseconds. Yeah, 10 billionths of a second. Are you honestly going to tell me that 10ns is so important to you that people should be
deprived of this feature so your script runs in 10 seconds rather than 10.000000001 seconds?
Oh and again I ask, why exactly does local aliases create such complexity and speed issues yet your constants suggestion doesn't?
