On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 10:34 PM, Philippe Meunier <[email protected]> wrote: > Matthew Flatt wrote: >> * Some of us have discussed collapsing `setup-plt', `mzc', `planet', >> `plt-help' and (in case I've overlooked any) other miscellaneous >> programming tools into a single `rico' executable. > > I see that as mixing apples and oranges. Then there's a strong risk > of it ending up like cvs, where I could never remember which > '-something' options I could use or not use in combination with which > 'update', 'log', etc. sub-command, and where the same obscure > '-something' option had a different meaning depending on which > 'update', 'log', etc. sub-command I was in the middle of using (or was > it that the same option had a different meaning depending on whether > it appeared before the sub-command name or after? I can't remember > now, nor do I want to...) > > Robby Findler wrote: >>FWIW, part of this is motivated from the fact that we're coming from a >>situation where the dev tools are spread out among a bunch of >>executables and you'd never really guess where some of the >>functionality is (quick: where is zo-file decompilation?). > > But it's only going to move the problem by one word to the right by > adding the word 'rico' in front (quick: which combination of rico > sub-command and option does zo-file decompilation?)
rico decompile <filename> :) > I think it would be more useful to keep separate commands and just > have them all start with the same prefix to make them easier to find. > This is is fact what svn does for all its svnadmin, svnsync, etc., > commands. I type 'svn' in my shell followed by two tabs and I get: > > svn svnlook > svn-populate-node-origins-index svnmucc > svnadmin svnserve > svnauthz-validate svnsync > svndumpfilter svnversion > > Well chosen names with a common prefix go a long way (I wouldn't call > some of the svn-related programs listed just above "well named" but > you get the idea). I think the advantage of having a separate "rico" command gives us a place to put a help message (when no arguments are passed) which seems like it can be more informative than just getting a list of names, but this is definitely a minor point. The larger point, where we are definitely in agreement, is about the confusing nature of cvs commands and a desire to rearrange things to stop us from going to far down that path (we are more than a few steps down it now, with the current setup). Robby _________________________________________________ For list-related administrative tasks: http://list.cs.brown.edu/mailman/listinfo/plt-dev
