Re: parameter expansion with `:` does not work

[Greg Wooledge]

On Thu, Jul 08, 2021 at 12:37:07AM +0200, lisa-asket@perso.be wrote:

> >From: Dennis Williamson <dennistwilliamson@gmail.com>
> >$ : ${foo:-bar}
> >$ : ${foo:=bar}
> >The first form is a substitution and the second form is an assignment.

> So you used `:` at the beginning and it worked?

Are you incapable of seeing the difference between the two lines?

I weep for the human race.  There's no telling what you're even seeing
on your monitor (assuming you can see, and aren't using a screen reader).
You're clearly using some mail user agent that works like Microsoft Outlook,
and there's no guessing what it's doing to the messages you receive.

If you literally cannot see the difference between :- and := in the
above example, then all is lost, and there is nothing more we can say
to you.  Because you can't see it.