From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 28733 invoked from network); 20 Aug 2001 06:54:02 -0000 Received: from sunsite.dk (130.225.51.30) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 20 Aug 2001 06:54:02 -0000 Received: (qmail 2816 invoked by alias); 20 Aug 2001 06:53:54 -0000 Mailing-List: contact zsh-workers-help@sunsite.dk; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes X-Seq: 15663 Received: (qmail 2803 invoked from network); 20 Aug 2001 06:53:53 -0000 Message-ID: <20010820065351.70088.qmail@web10406.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 23:53:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Felix Rosencrantz Subject: Re: New options & arguments processing system for ZSH To: zsh-workers MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I think parse_opts is very interesting. To me, it's exciting since it attempts to use the same specifications for command line parsing as it does for completion. I think whatever format we use for command descriptions, the format should be able to help the shell understand the command line from many different angles (e.g. completion, command line correction, validation, prediction, generation). I think this is the first specifications that attempts to cover the issues of the command line from multiple sides, which a data format can do. I think this format is complimentary to the XML stuff with which I've been playing. I think it would be possible to generate the parse_opts call from the XML format. Also, since parse_opts has additional type and frequency information that could be added to the XML format, to aid parse_opts generation. One thing I noticed when trying to complete options to the supplied "yes" function, was that it didn't provide much help for the options. It provided type information, but it didn't actually tell me what the options did. The format does provide a mechanism to do that. Though it seems like that it requires duplicating information that is already there in the help text. So it seems if it was somehow possible to reuse the help text already there that might be useful. This format also gives the developer a bit of control over where&how option information is placed variables. It would be nice if _arguments had richer control over that. Though this extra control seems like it is more for command line parsing that for completion. -FR. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/