Re: date --help improvements

[Hans-Bernhard Broeker]

Dan Jacobson <address@hidden> wrote:
> $ date --help
>   %T   time, 24-hour (hh:mm:ss)
>   %X   locale's time representation (%H:%M:%S)
> one quickly perusing this information might think they are the same, 

I somewhat doubt that. One of the specifically mentions the "locale",
the other doesn't. Any user who knows a bit about locale-specific
behaviour of program will easily be able to see what that means.

And the strings in brackets really are only meant as the typical or
default behaviour, to my knowledge.

> Therefore, a note should be made about the possible popping up of
> AM/PM, as "(%H:%M:%S)" doesn't visually clue the user about that.  

Of course it doesn't. Neither does it hint that some locales might
indeed print something completely different, instead of that.

The only way out I can see would be to remove the parenthesized part
completely.

> Yes, my
> $ echo $LC_TIME
> zh_TW.Big5
> but that's no excuse not to add a tiny note to that sentence more than
> just "locale".

The note would have to be _very_ tiny, in order to fit into a single
line, like all the other lines of --help do. Note that --help is not
meant as a replacement for the real documentation. There will always
be details that --help cannot tell, and the fine print about locale
specific behaviour will usually be one major missing aspect, due to
the sheer amount of it.

And of course, if you really do care about this so much, you should be
contributing patches, not just requesting others to write them to your
liking...
-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (address@hidden)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.