Chapter 24:

• many older shell script writers (like me) tend to use ALLCAPS for variable names in the shell. This is totally unnecessary. Please do, however, ensure that variable names stand out. Using some amount of capitalization is helpful for this (capitalize first letter, camel case, etc). If you choose to use ALLCAPS, be aware the standard shell variables use all capital letters. Make sure you dont overwrite one of these that the shell needs.
• The end of the chapter has notes on using vim for writing shell scripts, and suggests you use a tabstop of 4 spaces. This is a good idea; however, tabs are still inserted in your code - vim simply interprets them using 4 character tab stops. Then if you cat the script at the command-line (or print the file on a printer!), you see tabs expanded using the default 8 character stops.
  One alternative is to add the option :set expandtab  When this option is on, tabs are replaced with the number of spaces necessary to align them to the tab stop. In this configuration, cat-ing them (or printing them!) later shows the same formatting as you see on the screen.
  Remember, this means when you press tab you are inserting spaces, so make sure you put both of these in your ~/.vimrc (or ~/.exrc) file.

Copyright 2016 Greg Boyd - All Rights Reserved.