[GROOVY-6397] groovysh: prefix commands with ":" to avoid namespace overlap

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 2.2.0-rc-1
• Fix Version/s: 2.3.0-beta-1
• Component/s: Groovysh
• Labels: breaking
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Thibault Kruse
• Created: 18/Oct/13 11:23
• Updated: 13/May/14 16:00
• Resolved: 13/May/14 16:00

Description

Groovysh oofers several commands, as listed here:
http://groovy.codehaus.org/Groovy+Shell#GroovyShell-RecognizedCommands

The problem with those commands right now is that they overlap in namespace with variable/function names.

Other similar REPLs have solved this by using command prefixes. E.g. scala:

:cp
:help

Or ipython
%alias:
%autocall:

The issue appears when trying to define variables that are already taken as command names:

groovy:000> save = 3
Command 'save' requires a single file argument

Which is very annoying when copy/pasting code, and having to rename a variable.

So I suggest adding a command prefix to groovysh for most commands (except maybe "import", such as a colon (like Scala for conformity), or '\' as used in groovysh already for shortcuts.