zsh configuration proposal

[Eric Hattemer]

First, I would suggest to everyone on this list to try zsh if you
haven't before.  Its almost 100% compatible with bash, even more
compatible with sh, but its much more intelligent than bash, even with
bash_completions installed.  Information is at www.zsh.org.

With that out of the way, I noticed that zsh on Mandrake for instance is
configured much better than on RedHat.  So I had Warren talk to the zsh
maintainer for redhat, and he said that if I could put together a good
configuration, he would probably push that into the next package.  So,
that's what I did.  So please download it and take a look.  It turns on
completion, correction, and a number of other options which are nice.
It is at

http://isd.usc.edu/~ehatteme/zsh/zshetc.tar.bz2

I decided to create a little prompt chooser program at

http://isd.usc.edu/~ehatteme/zsh/zshprompt.pl

It requres Gtk-Perl.  It shows off the ability to make a colored prompt
in zsh.  Its not 100% finished, but it has most of the functionality
already.

The zshetc.tar.bz2 will unzip into subdirectory etc.  So you can install
zsh (package name "zsh"), backup /etc/z*, then just unzip this file from
/.  The default redhat versions of these files are unexciting, and have
very few lines of code.  Please give these files a try.  I think you
will find working with a configured version of zsh very enjoyable.  Any
comments on these files would be appreciated and taken very seriously.
I welcome major configuration changes, as well as things like disability
accessibility, in-file documentation, standards and compatibility.  Some
of these settings go with my personal preference, so if you have a
different preference, let me know because maybe its more popular.  If
you are new to zsh, try out the "compinstall" command to set up
completions.  There is a lot of preference in there, but maybe you'll
find a way to configure it that the masses will enjoy.

So anyway, please try it out, test it, configure it, and let me know
what you think.  If you have any questions about zsh, just ask, although
I am not an expert, just an enthusiast.

-Eric Hattemer