zsh or fish for an intermediate Linux user?

zaphodb2002@sh.itjust.works to Linux@lemmy.ml – 46 points –

So I've been using Linux now for a while, and am looking to migrate my dev environment to vim and spend more time in the command line. I'm fairly comfortable with bash but by no means an expert. I've used zsh with some minor customization but just recently learned about fish. I'd love to hear people's opinions.

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I moved to the fish shell a while ago and I love it, everything I need works OOB. I don't understand people complaining about the different sintax for scripts, this is a non issue, just use #!/bin/bash at the start of your script and it will use bash, or just execute directly with "bash script.sh".

I don't understand people complaining about the different sintax for scripts, this is a non issue...

I have a two major reasons:

  • Adding another shell syntax adds unnecessary cognitive load and context switching. If I were to use a non-POSIX shell, I'd have to remember another, highly domain-specific language, in addition to BASH/ZSH/SH and need to context switch when writing and debugging shell scripts. Instead, I can spend the mental energy on writing code, and learning new languages and tools.
  • Most remote *nix systems run BASH or another POSIX-compliant shell. This introduces additional context switching when administering or debugging remotely.