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One thing VMS got right is that each binary declared its supported options and the shell could tell you what they were. And it would take any unique abbreviatio
by erik_seaberg 6y ago
One thing VMS got right is that each binary declared its supported options and the shell could tell you what they were. And it would take any unique abbreviation.
- ziml77 6y agoPowershell scripts and cmdlets work similarly. They probably won't have help text but at least you can see what's available without having to look at the argument parsing section of the script. And you can use the shortest unique prefix as the short form of an argument (though I don't love this since adding an argument can break the shortened form of other arguments)
- JoBrad 6y agoIt’s easy (although verbose) to add help text, and valid options, too.
- ziml77 6y agoAlso easy to create option sets so that mutually exclusive arguments are shown in the help as different ways to invoke the script.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoAnd bunch of other niceties, all queryable without running the script, and all feeding autocomplete with useful information: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26748549 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26748549