Re: [Nmh-workers] does "folder +inbox -noprint" work?

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Paul,

> Valdis wrote:
> > Ralph wrote:
> > > That quickly bores.  -noprint doesn't seem a good fit for a
> > > general `please be quiet'.  If folder's regaining that
> > > functionality then perhaps it's the opportunity to use a more
> > > general, positive rather than negative, option?  Especially if it
> > > has an often unambiguous abbreviation.
> > 
> > -silent?
>
> i guess i don't think -noprint is so bad.  it's pretty much
> self-explanatory, and has never worked in the past (so we wouldn't be
> breaking anything).

I agree -noprint wouldn't break anything, but, if mh-chart(7) is correct
and I've plucked options from it without error, then there's already

    -noprefer  -noprepend  -nopreserve

so `-nopri' would be needed to be unambiguous if it were to become the
common option across nmh commands.  That's tedious, and doesn't
obviously say `be quiet', ending in an `eye' sound, not an `ee', so the
`...nt' would be added anyway.

`-silent' is already used by one command, inc(1).  `-s' is naturally
very common, but `-si' is unique.

`-quiet' is also used by one command, burst(1).  `-q' isn't unique
because of `-query', solely used by repl(1) for "asking", the man page
says.

POSIX grep(1) has `-q', GNU long form `--quiet'.  Searching section 1 of
the man pages suggest `quiet' is the common term.  Ignoring the loads of
uncommon commands that use it, there's still many users: git, gpg, less,
passwd, readlink, rsync, script, systemctl, valgrind, wget, and the
compressors -- bzip2, gzip, lzop, etc., all have `-q' for quietness.

`-s' is used by fewer, the old Bell Labs commands: cmp, ed, make, and
tty.

I'd prefer `-q'; as a one-letter option in other commands, it's familiar
for this meaning.  `-si' would be an nmh thing.  That would either mean
nobbling repl's -query, does anyone use it?  :-)  Or altering option
parsing to allow a precedence, perhaps just for single letters, so a
command with `-query' and `-quiet' can declare `-q' means shush.  I'm
been thinking the option parsing could benefit from `improvement' in
this and other ways for a while.

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.
https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy