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From: Michael Siegel <msi@malbolge.net>
To: Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com>
Cc: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Systematic approach to command-line interfaces
Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2021 18:51:37 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20210801185137.0a4822b1@moon> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CABH=_VR-tfenCLE=DeNcb2ahPjG80v6Ma+W0sRt2jAfy2OX4hg@mail.gmail.com>

Am Sat, 31 Jul 2021 11:56:51 -0400
schrieb Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com>:

> On 7/31/21, Michael Siegel <msi@malbolge.net> wrote:
> >
> > While doing that, I learned that there is a better way to approach
> > this problem – beyond using getopt(s) (which never really made
> > sense to me) and having to write case statements in loops every
> > time: Define a grammar, let a pre-built parser do the work, and
> > have the parser provide the results to the program.  
> 
> This method for handling command lines dates back at least to the
> 1970s.  The COMND JSYS (system call) in TOPS-20 operated this way, as
> does the DCL command line interface in OpenVMS.  As you pointed out it
> can greatly simplify the code in the application.  It also permits
> command completion.  If the command has a long-winded option, such as
> -supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, I can type -super then hit the
> TAB key and as long as there is only one option that starts with
> -super the parser will fill in the rest of the long keyword.  It also
> means that you can provide interactive help.  At any point the user
> can type a question mark and the command interpreter will say what
> syntactic element is expected next.

Being able to provide interactive help is exactly what the person who
suggested grammar-based parsing to me was working on. I hadn't even
thought about that at first. But given my recent investigation into
built-in command documentation on Unix-like systems, I tend to think
this would be a great enhancement – if it was implemented with a
strict focus on not getting in the way, i.e., the user should be able
to switch it off completely, and search-as-you-type would be opt-in, if
provided at all.


--
Michael

  parent reply	other threads:[~2021-08-01 16:54 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 100+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-07-31 12:25 Michael Siegel
2021-07-31 13:05 ` Dan Halbert
2021-07-31 14:21 ` Adam Thornton
2021-07-31 14:25   ` Adam Thornton
2021-07-31 15:45 ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 16:03   ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 16:06     ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 16:21       ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 16:17     ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 16:30       ` Dan Cross
2021-07-31 15:56 ` Paul Winalski
2021-07-31 16:19   ` Dan Cross
2021-08-01 17:44     ` Chet Ramey
2021-08-01 21:53       ` Dan Cross
2021-08-01 23:21         ` Chet Ramey
2021-08-01 23:36         ` John Cowan
2021-08-01 23:49           ` Larry McVoy
2021-08-02  0:28             ` Larry McVoy
2021-08-01 23:58           ` Dan Cross
2021-08-02  0:29             ` Steve Nickolas
2021-08-02  0:13           ` Andrew Warkentin
2021-08-02  0:18             ` John Cowan
2021-08-02  0:54               ` Andrew Warkentin
2021-08-02  1:04               ` Dan Cross
2021-08-02  1:05             ` Theodore Ts'o
2021-08-02  2:10               ` Andrew Warkentin
2021-08-02  2:32               ` Bakul Shah
2021-08-02 17:33             ` Lars Brinkhoff
2021-09-28 17:46             ` Greg A. Woods
2021-09-28 18:10               ` Larry McVoy
2021-09-29 16:40                 ` Greg A. Woods
2021-09-29 16:57                   ` Larry McVoy
2021-09-30 17:31                     ` Greg A. Woods
2021-09-29 23:10               ` Phil Budne
2021-08-02 17:37           ` Lars Brinkhoff
2021-08-02 18:52             ` Clem Cole
2021-08-02 20:59               ` John Cowan
2021-08-02 21:06                 ` Al Kossow
2021-08-02 21:14                 ` Clem Cole
2021-08-02 21:13               ` Clem Cole
2021-08-01 16:51   ` Michael Siegel [this message]
2021-08-01 17:31     ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 16:41 ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 17:41   ` John Cowan
2021-07-31 17:30 ` Anthony Martin
2021-07-31 17:46   ` John Cowan
2021-07-31 18:56   ` Michael Siegel
2021-07-31 19:41     ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 21:30       ` Michael Siegel
2021-08-01 17:48     ` Chet Ramey
2021-08-01 19:23       ` Richard Salz
2021-08-01 23:26         ` Chet Ramey
2021-07-31 19:20 ` [TUHS] Systematic approach to command-line interfaces [ meta issues ] Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 21:06   ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 21:32     ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 21:37       ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 21:55         ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 22:10       ` Warner Losh
2021-07-31 22:19         ` Larry McVoy
2021-07-31 22:20         ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 23:26           ` Warner Losh
2021-07-31 23:41             ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 22:04   ` Bakul Shah
2021-07-31 22:13     ` Larry McVoy
2021-07-31 22:14       ` Bakul Shah
2021-07-31 22:17         ` Bakul Shah
2021-07-31 22:16     ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 22:20       ` Bakul Shah
2021-07-31 16:27 [TUHS] Systematic approach to command-line interfaces Nelson H. F. Beebe
2021-07-31 16:47 Ron Young
2021-08-02  2:34 ` Jim Carpenter
2021-08-02  2:38   ` Ron Young
2021-08-02  2:42 Douglas McIlroy
2021-08-02 14:58 ` Theodore Ts'o
2021-08-02 18:15   ` Adam Thornton
2021-08-02 18:24     ` Warner Losh
2021-08-02 20:55     ` John Cowan
2021-08-02 21:06       ` Jon Steinhart
2021-08-02 21:25         ` Dan Cross
2021-08-02 21:59           ` Jon Steinhart
2021-08-02 22:33             ` John Cowan
2021-08-03  0:21     ` Bakul Shah
2021-08-03  1:49       ` Jon Steinhart
2021-08-03  3:21         ` Adam Thornton
2021-08-03  3:27         ` Bakul Shah
2021-08-03  3:51           ` Jon Steinhart
2021-08-03  7:19   ` arnold
2021-08-03 23:12     ` Andrew Warkentin
2021-08-04 15:04       ` Paul Winalski
2021-08-03 15:01 Douglas McIlroy
2021-08-03 17:13 ` Tom Lyon via TUHS
2021-08-11 18:11   ` Tom Ivar Helbekkmo via TUHS
2021-08-11 21:24     ` Tom Lyon via TUHS
2021-08-03 19:12 Douglas McIlroy
2021-09-28 18:15 Noel Chiappa
2021-09-29 18:07 Noel Chiappa
2021-09-29 19:04 ` Dan Cross
2021-09-29 19:12 ` Larry McVoy
2021-09-30 11:41 Douglas McIlroy
2021-10-01 12:11 Paul Ruizendaal

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