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Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks
From: |
Bernhard Voelker |
Subject: |
Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks |
Date: |
Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:03:12 +0100 |
User-agent: |
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130215 Thunderbird/17.0.3 |
Hi Benno,
sorry for the late reply, but Jay was still waiting for my
signed papers anyway (I hope it's done now).
On 02/10/2013 10:01 PM, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 8, 2013, at 23:01, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
>> Here's the fix.
>
> Looks good, except... I don't like the misalignment caused
> by specifying optional arguments also for the short option.
> Why not extend the introductory phrase to say:
>
> "Mandatory and optional arguments to long options are
> also mandatory or optional for the short option.\n"
>
> Gnulib, glibc and tar, for example, use the following phrase:
>
> "Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also
> mandatory or optional for any corresponding short options."
I slightly disagree - it's sometimes not so easy for the user
to remember how mandatory and optional option's arguments have
to be or can be passed. The following example illustrates this:
-I R same as --replace=R (R must be specified)
-i[R], --replace[=R] replace R in initial arguments with names read
While R *can* be separated by a space from the -I option (i.e. mandatory),
it *must* be passed without a space for the -i option (i.e. optional).
Therefore, this reminds the user about how to do it correctly.
You mentioned coreutils below - they're doing it like this. ;-)
> In my opnion it is not necessary to say that square brackets
> indicate optional arguments -- the reader has to know this
> already in order to understand the synopsis.
Removed.
> And for --help and --version, why not use the standard ones
> and put them at the end, like several coreutils and util-linux
> commands start doing?
Done, plus
* splitted the "mandatory" sentence from the program description,
* capitalized MAX-PROCS in the -P description as you noted in the
other mail,
* moved the equal sign into the square brackets: --replace[=R].
Attached you'll find the updated patch.
Have a nice day,
Berny
usage-separate-descriptions-v4.patch
Description: Text Data
- please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Benno Schulenberg, 2013/02/03
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Bernhard Voelker, 2013/02/06
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Benno Schulenberg, 2013/02/07
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Bernhard Voelker, 2013/02/08
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Eric Blake, 2013/02/08
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Bernhard Voelker, 2013/02/08
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Eric Blake, 2013/02/08
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Bernhard Voelker, 2013/02/08
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Benno Schulenberg, 2013/02/10
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Benno Schulenberg, 2013/02/10
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks,
Bernhard Voelker <=
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Benno Schulenberg, 2013/02/25
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Bernhard Voelker, 2013/02/26
- Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks, Benno Schulenberg, 2013/02/26