Hello!
Paul Menzel has written on Wednesday, 24 October, at 15:39:
>Am Mittwoch, den 24.10.2012, 16:23 +0300 schrieb Andrej N. Gritsenko:
>> Paul Menzel has written on Wednesday, 24 October, at 15:07:
>> >Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:48:57 +0200
>>
>> >Autoconf provides `--without-PACKAGE` by default for not working with a
>> >package [1].
>>
>> > $ ./configure --help
>> > […]
>> > Optional Packages:
>> > --with-PACKAGE[=ARG] use PACKAGE [ARG=yes]
>> > --without-PACKAGE do not use PACKAGE (same as
>> > --with-PACKAGE=no)
>> > […]
>>
>> >To make it clearer reword the help text to mention »Enable«.
>>
>> It isn't correct because it is enabled by default and it should be.
>> And if we mention only 'without' in help then argument description will
>> be lost (obviously, --without-PACKAGE has no arguments). It's why both
>> variants --with-gtk[=X] and --without-gtk should be in help output. I'm
>> sorry but this place should not be simplified. :)
>Do you know how other programs deal with it?
Yes, I know. The common practice is to not mention things which are
default in the help (that is obvious, those options are just ignored so
make no sense) but mention only things which change default behavior. In
our case it is '--without-gtk' which definitely should be mentioned. And
if we mention only it then '--with-gtk=3.0' will be never known to anyone
who runs './configure --help'. And common practice for similar cases is
to mention both cases in the help: one to change default value and one to
disable feature. I've seen it few times already. The most obvious example
is Libintl and Libiconv - just look into any autoconf-generated output of
'./configure --help' for any package which uses one of those.
>Also the other options with arguments do not explicitly mention an
>argument `--without-…`.
Other options with arguments do not mention --without just because
that --without is _default_ one and resetting something from default to
default literally changes nothing so does not deserve to be mentioned.
>How about:
> Specify version of Gtk+ to use. Disable with »no« or
> `--without-gtk`.
This is too complicated to mention two things in one description
which should be more detailed than one proposed by you so will make few
lines long manual for use two options, in one description. Let make it
simpler for users. Do you remember time when you told me commits should
be atomic? Why help should be not? I believe help deserves to be atomic
much more than commits do. :)
BTW, thank you for touching the subject - I think that help string
should mention all values for '--with-gtk', i.e.
AS_HELP_STRING([--with-gtk=@<:@2.0/3.0/no@:>@]
I'll change it later.
WBR, Andriy.
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