On 8/26/26 9:43 AM, Zachary Santer wrote:
Bash could potentially implement a -s "sorted" option for the declare
builtin, allowing the user to dictate that expansions of *this
particular* associative array be in lexicographic order of keys. That
would at least be more granular than a shopt option. Additionally, the
LC_ALL/LC_COLLATE that's set when that declare command executes could
dictate the collation order in effect throughout the lifetime of this
associative array. So, a given red-black tree or whatever could be
maintained throughout that time, rather than requiring bash to sort
the associative array each time it's expanded.
That's a pretty high implementation and maintenance cost, not to mention
a potential run-time cost, for a feature that historically no one has
requested.
--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU [email protected] http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/
