Re: Use of "?" for help has been deprecated for 8 years, can we drop it?

[Gerd Hoffmann]

  Hi,

> > Did we ever issue a warning when it was used?  It's easier to argue that
> > it can be dropped if users had notice of some form or another.  That
> > said, I'm not heartbroken if we yank it immediately instead of letting
> > it live for 2 more releases.
> 
> How about keeping it as a convenience? I find it easier to type ? than help
> and often use it instead.

Well, ? has the problem that it is a shell glob char[1], which is for me
enough reason to avoid it at least standalone ("-device ?").  When
querying properties ("-device foo,?") it is much less likely to trip you
up.

On the other hand I don't see any harm in keeping it.  What would we
save when we drop it?  Given we already have a helper function to check
it is only 2-3 lines of extra code I guess?

take care,
  Gerd

[1] IIRC that was the reason to add "help" in the first place.