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
next prev 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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