Is zsh worth it?

n___n

mac os changed it to be the default some time ago. I haven’t noticed a difference.

depends on what you'll be using it for.

Manual usage? Probably yes.

Scripting? Definitely stick to bash.

for 'oh my zsh' definently

Powerlevel10k and antidote with zsh is the best shell

I have a very conservative config that I threw together during a 15 minute break from exam crunch with no prior zsh experience and it's still lightyears better than bash. I imagine if you have more time the difference is even more apparent.

I especially like the fuzzy subpath matcher, I have 6 project folders with a shared prefix but I can just hit the first letter of that and a few letters from the unique part and tab completion figures out what I want.

@lorentz Oh wow Lorentz you've sold me, THANK YOU!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Anything with fuzzy in it is 💯

@netikras Why is scripting bad in zsh??

Tbh the most I do with scripts is alias's and bash functions

@lorentz Which fuzzy plugin do you use? zsh-fzy or zsh-fzf?

Thanks!!! :)

@lopu it's not bad per-se. But it will only run on zsh, which afaik is only preinstalled on macs. So if you write a zsh script, don't expect it will be that much used by non-macs.

Imagine a dev project with zsh helper scripts. Windows lads will hang you, linux chaps will shoot you.

@netikras I was wondering why Apple switched to zsh in the first place.
Apparently it’s because bash has changed the license from gpl2 to gpl3 in the newer versions.

@Apple haters: Yes, I know that you were going to start screaming about how bad Apple is for making everything different than other OS :)

If you intend for your scripts to be run by random people you should aim for POSIX anyway, and AFAIK zsh is also POSIX compliant, it juts offers nicer options for when you can assume zsh.

Besides, muscle memory to me is to invoke shell scripts with bash so the interactive shell hardly matters.

I have to say after trying zsh for a bit, I found the fancy fuzzy searching and etc was actually slower compared to tab/type/tab/type/tab/type pattern, with the fuzzy searching you have to use your arrow keys to select the path, hit enter, etc.. etc..

Even just the basic git autocomplete bash extension is better than the fuzzy autocomplete for zsh git commands.