ralph wrote: > Hi Paul, > > > Valdis wrote: > > > Ralph wrote: > > > > That quickly bores. -noprint doesn't seem a good fit for a > > > > general `please be quiet'. If folder's regaining that > > > > functionality then perhaps it's the opportunity to use a more > > > > general, positive rather than negative, option? Especially if it > > > > has an often unambiguous abbreviation. > > > > > > -silent? > > > > i guess i don't think -noprint is so bad. it's pretty much > > self-explanatory, and has never worked in the past (so we wouldn't be > > breaking anything). > > I agree -noprint wouldn't break anything, but, if mh-chart(7) is correct > and I've plucked options from it without error, then there's already > > -noprefer -noprepend -nopreserve > > so `-nopri' would be needed to be unambiguous if it were to become the > common option across nmh commands. That's tedious, and doesn't > obviously say `be quiet', ending in an `eye' sound, not an `ee', so the > `...nt' would be added anyway.
you kind of lost me in that last bit, but i'll take your word for it. ;-) i'm fine with the idea of creating a "universal hush" option. but i don't think i'll hold up actually implementing -noprint, for the folder command, on the development branch. we can make a new -quiet or -silent option, and make it synonymous with -noprint, sometime in the future. how's that? paul > > `-silent' is already used by one command, inc(1). `-s' is naturally > very common, but `-si' is unique. > > `-quiet' is also used by one command, burst(1). `-q' isn't unique > because of `-query', solely used by repl(1) for "asking", the man page > says. > > POSIX grep(1) has `-q', GNU long form `--quiet'. Searching section 1 of > the man pages suggest `quiet' is the common term. Ignoring the loads of > uncommon commands that use it, there's still many users: git, gpg, less, > passwd, readlink, rsync, script, systemctl, valgrind, wget, and the > compressors -- bzip2, gzip, lzop, etc., all have `-q' for quietness. > > `-s' is used by fewer, the old Bell Labs commands: cmp, ed, make, and > tty. > > I'd prefer `-q'; as a one-letter option in other commands, it's familiar > for this meaning. `-si' would be an nmh thing. That would either mean > nobbling repl's -query, does anyone use it? :-) Or altering option > parsing to allow a precedence, perhaps just for single letters, so a > command with `-query' and `-quiet' can declare `-q' means shush. I'm > been thinking the option parsing could benefit from `improvement' in > this and other ways for a while. > > -- > Cheers, Ralph. > https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy > > -- > Nmh-workers > https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/nmh-workers > =---------------------- paul fox, [email protected] (arlington, ma, where it's -3.6 degrees) -- Nmh-workers https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/nmh-workers
