Re: [PATCH] Fix WATCH/watch tying

On Fri, May 1, 2026 at 6:38 PM Oliver Kiddle <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> An environment variable doesn't have a type associated with it so it'd
> be a case of limiting this to scalars. From a quick scan, WATCH is about
> the only scalar autoloaded parameter. Otherwise, there's only SRANDOM
> which is readonly. Without loading the module, the shell only knows the
> parameter's name and not the type. Maybe some additional marker can be
> added.

Presuming you mean adding something to watch.mdd autofeatures?

          The standard features are builtins, conditions, parameters and
          math functions; these are indicated by the prefix 'b:', 'c:'
          ('C:' for an infix condition), 'p:' and 'f:', respectively,
          followed by the name that the corresponding feature would have
          in the shell.

So you're thinking something like 'i:' for imported or 'e:' for
environment, or possibly 'P:' for "special parameter"?  And the effect
is to cause the module to autoload at initialization when the
environment variable is (about to be) imported?

I don't think there's any way for this to be entirely handled by the
module unless the WATCH environment is ignored until the module loads
... which would probably be OK, actually; why would you expect the
search to work if you never loaded the module?  Backward
compatibility?