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Re: [Monotone-devel] More descriptive help summary
From: |
Julio M. Merino Vidal |
Subject: |
Re: [Monotone-devel] More descriptive help summary |
Date: |
Mon, 9 Apr 2007 17:14:04 +0200 |
On 09/04/2007, at 13:11, Richard Levitte - VMS Whacker wrote:
In message <address@hidden> on Mon,
9 Apr 2007 09:45:51 +0200, "Julio M. Merino Vidal"
<address@hidden> said:
jmmv84> Or "remove" subcommands and make them regular commands
jmmv84> (e.g. "db-init" instead of "db init").
I disagree with that idea fdor aesthetic reasons. That, or mtn should
be split in small programs, such as mtn-db-init. I'm sure we don't
want that.
It is just that the current interface seems "inconsistent". Either
some categories ought to be removed, or some of the subcommands
erased. I.e., what's the difference between the "database" category
and the "db" command? Or between "automation" and "automate"? It
seems that re-categorizing such commands is easier, and won't cause
any incompatibilities.
jmmv84> An alternative could be to show no commands at all on the
jmmv84> default help, but only the categories with a little blurb of
jmmv84> what they are about. Such as:
jmmv84>
jmmv84> [...options summary here...]
jmmv84>
jmmv84> Command categories:
jmmv84>
jmmv84> automation Commands for scripted execution
jmmv84> db Commands to manage the database
jmmv84> ...
jmmv84>
jmmv84> Type "mtn help <category>" to show information on all commands
jmmv84> available in that category.
I *like* that thought. I'd hate for the help immediately requiring a
pager, which often results in users going:
I've implemented this and left a preliminary patch here (which is
quite large for an attachment):
http://www.NetBSD.org/~jmmv/mtn-help.diff
I don't dare to commit this without agreement nor approval first ;-)
So... comments?
What the above does is the following:
1) Changes the default 'mtn help' to print the list of available groups
and their purpose in a compact way.
2) Changes 'mtn help' to take either a group name or a command name.
3) 'mtn help <group_name>' shows all available commands within the given
group, alongside their purpose.
4) 'mtn help <command_name>' shows the detailed information for the
given command, just as before.
I haven't touched the descriptions nor the options (yet).
Cheers,
--
Julio M. Merino Vidal <address@hidden>
- [Monotone-devel] More descriptive help summary, Julio M. Merino Vidal, 2007/04/08
- [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Julio M. Merino Vidal, 2007/04/11
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Thomas Keller, 2007/04/11
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Julio M. Merino Vidal, 2007/04/12
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Thomas Keller, 2007/04/12
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Julio M. Merino Vidal, 2007/04/14
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Richard Levitte, 2007/04/14
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Thomas Keller, 2007/04/14
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Re: More descriptive help summary, Derek Scherger, 2007/04/14