diff --git a/share/config.fish b/share/config.fish
index 432fa6eb0..dae242244 100644
--- a/share/config.fish
+++ b/share/config.fish
@@ -18,12 +18,18 @@ function __fish_default_command_not_found_handler
 end
 
 if status --is-interactive
-	# Existance of string is a good pre-2.3.0 check. Could also check $FISH_VERSION in the future.
-	# This is a "launch", not an issue caused by autoloading during upgrades.
+	# The user has seemingly explicitly launched an old fish with
+	# too-new scripts installed. a
 	if not contains "string" (builtin -n)
-		# the string.fish message to `exec` will probably not help here, so this will that.
 		set -g __is_launched_without_string 1
 
+		# XXX nostring - fix old fish binaries with no `string' builtin.
+		# When executed on fish 2.2.0, the `else' block after this would
+		# force on 24-bit mode due to changes to in test behavior 
+		# Let's show a public serivec announcement. 
+	
+		# Remove this code when it's safe to upgrade fish and we've solved fish-script conflicts. 
+
 		set_color --bold
 		echo "You appear to be trying to launch an old fish binary with newer scripts "
 		echo "installed into" (set_color --underline)"$__fish_datadir" 
@@ -205,7 +211,7 @@ for file in $configdir/fish/conf.d/*.fish $__fish_sysconfdir/conf.d/*.fish $__ex
 end
 
 # Upgrade pre-existing abbreviations from the old "key=value" to the new "key value" syntax
-# This needs to be in share/config.fish because __fish_config_interactive is called after sourcing config.fish, which might contain abbr calls
+# This needs to be in share/config.fish because __fish_config_interactive is called after 2sourcing config.fish, which might contain abbr calls
 if not set -q __fish_init_2_3_0
 	set -l fab
 	for abb in $fish_user_abbreviations
diff --git a/share/functions/__fish_config_interactive.fish b/share/functions/__fish_config_interactive.fish
index f8b08de62..b95d1f0c0 100644
--- a/share/functions/__fish_config_interactive.fish
+++ b/share/functions/__fish_config_interactive.fish
@@ -167,7 +167,6 @@ function __fish_config_interactive -d "Initializations that should be performed
 		commandline -f repaint
 	end
 
-
 	# Notify vte-based terminals when $PWD changes (issue #906)
 	if test "$VTE_VERSION" -ge 3405 -o "$TERM_PROGRAM" = "Apple_Terminal"
 		function __update_vte_cwd --on-variable PWD --description 'Notify VTE of change to $PWD'
diff --git a/share/functions/prompt_pwd.fish b/share/functions/prompt_pwd.fish
index 96e9b2f33..4464d75d0 100644
--- a/share/functions/prompt_pwd.fish
+++ b/share/functions/prompt_pwd.fish
@@ -1,21 +1,28 @@
 function prompt_pwd --description "Print the current working directory, shortened to fit the prompt"
-	set -q argv[1]; and switch $argv[1]
-		case -h --help
-			__fish_print_help prompt_pwd
-			return 0
-	end
+    set -q argv[1]
+    and switch $argv[1]
+        case -h --help
+            __fish_print_help prompt_pwd
+            return 0
+    end
+    if set -q $__is_launched_without_string
+        # There is no `string' builtin - do something sensible. XXX nostring
+        echo $PWD
+        return 0
+    end
 
-	# This allows overriding fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length from the outside (global or universal) without leaking it
-	set -q fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length; or set -l fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length 1
+    # This allows overriding fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length from the outside (global or universal) without leaking it
+    set -q fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length
+    or set -l fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length 1
 
-	# Replace $HOME with "~"
-	set realhome ~
-	set -l tmp (string replace -r '^'"$realhome"'($|/)' '~$1' $PWD)
+    # Replace $HOME with "~"
+    set realhome ~
+    set -l tmp (string replace -r '^'"$realhome"'($|/)' '~$1' $PWD)
 
-	if [ $fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length -eq 0 ]
-		echo $tmp
-	else
-		# Shorten to at most $fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length characters per directory
-		string replace -ar '(\.?[^/]{'"$fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length"'})[^/]*/' '$1/' $tmp
-	end
+    if [ $fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length -eq 0 ]
+        echo $tmp
+    else
+        # Shorten to at most $fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length characters per directory
+        string replace -ar '(\.?[^/]{'"$fish_prompt_pwd_dir_length"'})[^/]*/' '$1/' $tmp
+    end
 end
diff --git a/share/functions/string.fish b/share/functions/string.fish
index ec5cb2612..c86ec4ce8 100644
--- a/share/functions/string.fish
+++ b/share/functions/string.fish
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 if not contains string (builtin -n)
+	# XXX nostring
 	function string
 		if not set -q __is_launched_without_string
 			if status --is-interactive