Subject: Re: bug#40549: More usability issues:

From: Arne Babenhauserheide <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 May 2020 18:32:24 +0200

Tom Zander via Bug reports for GNU Guix <[email-masked]> writes:
>> > You asked for an example;  see `git commit -S`. From the manpage:
>> >    -S[<keyid>], --gpg-sign[=<keyid>]
>> 
>> Thank you for the example.   Let me show you that it raises an issue
>> too because it is not so "simple". :-)
>
> Easier example then: from the 'ls(1)' manpage:
>   -I, --ignore=PATTERN
>
> seems git is trying to be smart.

Yes — and in that it often annoys me.

Anytime I use -S I worry about the interpretation of arguments, because
it already bit me a few times.

Git is a counter-example: It’s commandline is as unintuitive as it can
get without being an unfinished prototype.

And there really isn’t as much consistency in tools as you state.

Many tools interpret --foo bar as ((foo bar)), while others only accept
--foo=bar as ((foo bar)) and treat --foo bar as ((foo #t) bar).

Some tools only accept options before positional arguments, while others
allow you to intersperse both.

Some tools use named arguments without dash (dd).

GNU tools often differ from BSD tools by allowing options after
positional arguments and treating --foo bar as (foo bar).

And please don’t do radical changes on guix package. That would break
the workflow of every slightly longer term guix user.

Best wishes,
Arne
-- 
Unpolitisch sein
heißt politisch sein
ohne es zu merken