Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Low level vs. high level UI

[Pierce T . Wetter III]

On Feb 25, 2004, at 4:00 PM, Aaron Bentley wrote:

> On Wed, 2004-02-25 at 16:35, Pierce T. Wetter III wrote:
>
> > > It says "Use aba command -h for help on `command', or aba help 
> > > command
> > > for detailed help" at the bottom of "aba help" output.  But it's 
> > > just a
> > > frill-- aba command -H still works too.
> >
> >   Sure, but README doesn't mention any of that...
> >
> >   Really, you could bootstrap some documentation by just dumping aba
> > help, and aba help command for each of the aba comands to a file.
>
> The aba command -H output is meant to be the authoritative help.  In
> fact, I use "aba help --ext" to generate part of the aba web page.  I'd
> rather improve that documentation than produce another set.  A second
> set of documentation would just get out-of-sync fast.

  Sure, but perhaps you can mention aba help in the readme, as I found 
it by accident.
> > > I prefer easy interfaces, not simple ones.  For example, I use vim.
> > > And
> > > I can use aba exactly the way I use tla.
> >
> >    The difference between an easy interface and a simple one? I'm not
> > sure I understand the distinction? I prefer levels of interfaces
> > myself.
>
> vi is a program that is hard to learn (not simple), but easy to use 
> once
> you do.  That's the kind of thing I mean.

 Now see, I found vi easier to learn then emacs, which is why I've 
never learned to use emacs... tla is more like emacs then vi...

> > > My view is that gradual evolution is a more certain way of 
> > > generating a
> > > set of useful commands than high-level design.
> >
> >    Both have their place. I think its sometimes good to sit down and
> > think:
> >
> >     Ok, what do I do all the time in arch?
> >     How could that be more automatic?
>
> My objective with aba is to lower the barrier to entry, so that the
> first time you think "I do this a lot", you go and write an aba 
> command.

  Well, that makes it easier to use. Lowering the barrier to entry 
would be aba + a lot of contributed commands.

> > > I agree that tla's large command set represents a fairly high barrier
> > > to
> > > entry.  On the other hand, I only use about 7 commands 95% of the 
> > > time.
> >
> >   Ah, what are the 7 commands you use.
> tla update,
> aba diff [tla changes --diffs],
> aba elog [$EDITOR $(tla make-log)],
> tla commit,
> aba merge [tla star-merge $(cat $(tla tree-root)/++merge-source))],
> tla archive-mirror,
> aba branch-this.

 Funny that 4 of them are aba commands.


> > > >    aba suggestions:
> > > >
> > > >    have a register-archive that both registered the archive, and 
> > > > built
> > > > an alias:
> > > that
> > > would not be useful for me.  But if you'd like to write it,
> > > contributions are always welcome.
> >
> >    If I knew arch a little better, I would...
>
> I think it's just tla register-archive $1 $2; aba alias $3=$1

  Maybe we can talk offline about how YOU work with tla, and I can 
rough out some aba commands to work that way.


> > > >   In the big picture, aliases are a general high-level facility so
> > > > that
> > > > aba users can work with much shorter names. I would think that 
> > > > aliases
> > > > should be names that they tend to create as they go along with other
> > > > aba commands like "branch-this" and "tag-this".
> > >
> > > Oh, I almost always branch into the default archive.  So I haven't 
> > > seen
> > > the need for it.  How would you use it?
> >
> >    Well, like if I wanted a branch:
> >
> >     projects--fixingpunctuation--1.2 in archive:
>
> Which archive? You can't branch into jblack's archive, only he can.

  Perhaps aba should figure that out for me?

> >    aba branch-this fixingpunctuation
> >
> >    would let you use
> >
> >   aba get ^fixingpunctuation
> >
> >   because that would expand to:
> >
> >   tla get address@hidden/projects--fixingpunctuation--1.2
> >
> >   Does that make a little more sense?
>
> Not really.  Because if it's your default archive, you can use
> tla get projects--fixingpunctuation.  And if it's not your archive, you
> can't branch into it at all.  The only case I can see for it is for a
> non-default archive that you own.

  Perhaps the get is a bad example. What about later on if you wanted 
to do something else with the branch?

 Pierce

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