Eric Wilhelm wrote:
Ok. Here's one edge-case which probably involves somebody smart enough to not get stuck in it. Is this really a good argument for perplexing the user the other 99% of the time?
It seems to me that that situation is far more than 1%, more like 99%, of the times *when both --foo and --no-foo options are specified*. We don't care about the 99% of the time when it's only --foo or only --no-foo (or neither), because there's no confusion there.
I've read your essay, but I still have no idea what sort of non-"programmerly" users you're writing this for. First of all, no one who's not at least a little programmerly is going to be using command-line options in the first place. Second, what sort of user is going to be typing "--foo --no-foo" (or "--no-foo --foo")? If I did run into that sort of user I'd be mystified as to what they intended (and your essay didn't help me with guessing), and like Ovid I'd say the best thing to do is die with an error message.
-- Keith C. Ivey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Washington, DC
