Re: "u" alias

[jtc@redback.com (J.T. Conklin)]

>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Tromey <tromey@cygnus.com> writes:
Tom> Tonight I discovered that the command "u" is an alias for
Tom> "until".  I don't like this.  I've literally never used the
Tom> "until" command.  However, I do use the "up" command every single
Tom> time I run gdb (I can't remember not using it), and I expected
Tom> "u" to alias "up" by default.  Can we change this?

For what it's worth, I don't remember ever using the 'until' command,
much less the 'u' alias.

That being said, I believe single character commands are 'special'
(for lack of a better word) and that there should be a compelling
reason for creating one.  Not every command is deserving of single
character aliases --- only the most useful and most used commands.
Like you, I use up in nearly every debug session and think it passes
the usefulness/usability test.

Another characteristic that single character aliases should have is a
symmetry with other similar commands.  The commands s / n / c / r /
and u cover nearly all the commands that resume target execution.  If
there was a single letter command for walking up the stack frame, I
would expect a complementary single letter command for walking down
the stack frame.  

Using 'u' for up would break the symmetry of the exec commands, and I
think the prospect of using 'd' for down is even less likely since 'd'
is the breakpoint delete alias.

        --jtc

-- 
J.T. Conklin
RedBack Networks