On Sun, Aug 16, 2020 at 10:57 AM Eli Zaretskii <
eliz@gnu.org> wrote:
> From: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
> Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2020 07:23:29 -0700
> Cc: 21652@debbugs.gnu.org
>
> Tom Baker <tombaker17@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > I wrote this because I have a history of setting one command going,
> > then going off to do something else, and then remembering an hour
> > later "is that command done yet?" and looking to see that it finished
> > a half hour before.
>
> This is a valid use case.
There's something I don't think I understand in this use case: if the
same command was run from a shell prompt outside Emacs, would the
shell beep? Or is the intent to make the Emacs shell mode do
something a shell doesn't?
This is correct. Most non-emacs shells have a scrolling limit, so eventually command output scrolls off the top of the screen and is lost forever.
So "the Emacs shell mode" does "something a shell doesn't" right there.
Whether I am on Android, Mac, PC, or Linux, I can scroll back in the shell mode. And the "cross-platform" part of it is important to me, since I jump from one machine to another all the time.
> would the shell beep?
Yes, whether in bash or cmd.exe, I add an "echo the bell char so I'll know I am done" command. In shell mode (and not in all external shells), I can "enter my command" and hit enter, and then slap my forehead and mutter "gee, I forgot", and enter the "echo bell" command any time after that -- the shell mode will execute followup lines of commands afterwards seamlessly.
So that's another "the Emacs shell mode" does "something a shell doesn't".
There are lots more -- I've relied on the basic Emacs shell-mode since the 1980's. It's incredibly productive.
(IN CASE OF FOLLOWUP DISCUSSION: I already said (in the post to which this is a reply) that I can withdraw the suggestion. I don't need it any more. [I forget exactly what year, 2018, 2019, or 2020, I made this suggestion, but I've moved on from it without an emacs change, which I did form my own benefit, anyway.] )