Re: [Monotone-devel] More descriptive help summary

[Richard Levitte - VMS Whacker]

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.

jmmv84> At the moment some categories such as db or automation contain
jmmv84> just a single command within them, which does a lot of things
jmmv84> on its own and hides information one more level deep down.

Yeah, you might think that, but on the positive side, it gives a
structure, such as all "db" commands being strictly about the
database.

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:

       OK, let's type 'mtn help' so I can see what I should do...
       Holy mother of *****, what the hell was that?  OK, I'll try
       'mtn help | less'...

Cheers,
Richard

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Richard Levitte                         address@hidden
                                        http://richard.levitte.org/

"When I became a man I put away childish things, including
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