Re: Problems when RANDOM without $ is used as an array index

[Stephane CHAZELAS]

2010-01-12 22:07:31 -0500, Chet Ramey:
> On 1/12/10 5:16 AM, Stephane CHAZELAS wrote:
> > 2010-01-11, 17:42(-05), Chet Ramey:
> >>>> Think of it as
> >>>>
> >>>> x = $(( RANDOM%6+1 + RANDOM%6+1 ))
> >>>> y = dice[x]
> >>>> dice[RANDOM%6+1 + RANDOM%6+1] = y + 1
> >>>> return y
> >>> [...]
> >>>
> >>> I would still consider that a bug.
> >>
> >> OK.  But everyone does it the same way.
> > 
> > Except for pdksh, mksh, posh, perl, C.
> 
> The three shells in your list are all variants of the same base.  It's
> like using three different releases of bash.  The other two aren't
> shells.  C is a reasonable comparison, but there are other differences
> in how the languages are parsed and executed.
> 
> > I think by "everyone", you mean "AT&T ksh" and "zsh" or do you
> > know any other shell or language that behaves like that?
> 
> I haven't done an extensive investigation.  It's not really a significant
> issue.  It's important enough that bash, ksh, and zsh agree.  We don't
> need more incompatibilities between the major shells.
[...]

Hi Chet,

Please note that that bug has now been fixed in ksh93:
http://mailman.research.att.com/pipermail/ast-developers/2010q1/000550.html
so they don't agree anymore.

-- 
Stephane