[BRLTTY] Feature request: configurable prompt pattern

[Dave Mielke]

[quoted lines by Nicolas Pitre on 2018/03/14 at 14:18 -0400]

>My turn to challenge your interpretation.  ;-)

Sure. We can have lots of fun with this one. :-)

>The great responsibility raising your children is incumbent on you. That 
>means *your* life becomes more complex, not necessarily theirs.

Yes, but (rather simplistically) let's complete the analogy. Our children are 
stuck with our home and our rules. My wife and I are the ones who establish our 
home and make those rules. That makes my wife and I like the develoeprs and our 
children like the users. We establish the way things work and they're stuck 
with the results of our decisions. To me, this illustrates that the 
responsibility is on the developers to make things as easy as possible for the 
users.

>Same thing here: if you want to use a powerful tool or feature, it can't 
>be simple. 

But it isn't fair that some users wanting to use a more powerful tool means 
that others should be effectively isolated from using it. Note that I'm not 
saying that it shouldn't be done - I'm just pushing the discussion a bit the 
other way in order to encourage discussion such that the needs of both 
communities can best be met.

The initial requst was "I want it to work this way because the way it works now 
is useless and a hack". I'm pushing back. The way it works now isn't a hack, 
and it works perfectly fine for most users. Now, sure, let's make it work 
better for those with greater needs. No problem with that, but let's not get it 
into our heads that our innate cleverness gives us the right to summarily 
dismiss the needs of the rest.

>Yet, if you want to use a powerful tool, it is your responsibility to deal 
>with its complexity.

But that's exactly my point! Lots of people want to use NX/PRPROMPT, but that 
doesn't mean they want to use a complex tool. Most people want to use a simple 
tool, and it isn't fair for us to impose a more complex tool on them. So, sure, 
some of us want to use a more powerful tool, so let's develop it in a way that 
doesn't alienate those who don't.

>Doesn't mean it is wrong not wanting any complexity, but then you need to live 
>with preconfigured features and that's OK (I do it all the time).

As do I. My goal, here, is to try to figure out what the best design is - to 
capture the right balance between maintaining current functionality and 
introducing new functionality. That needs discussion, not just an "I want" 
followed by a "here you go".

>This prompt matching feature gets complex with the use of regexp. It 
>provides tremendous power over the current implementation. If you don't 
>need that power, stick to the default and forget that regexps exist.

Yes, and that's what configuration/preferences are designed to achieve. To get 
them right, though, is what the actual issue is. I don't want to just go for 
it, and then end up with a basic design that we'll regret forever.

>And this is not a critical feature either, meaning that if someone 
>messes up the prompt matching option, then only PRPROMPT / NXPROMPT will 
>be crippled, but that won't cause real trouble to the unfortunate 
>user given that the display and basic navigation functions are still 
>available.
>

Sure, but you should know me by now. I strive to get things right even if they 
may be perceived as less important.

-- 
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