On 2013-08-19, Manuel Ortega wrote: > On Mon, Aug 19, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Manuel Ortega <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear Bram, > > While perusing $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/vim.vim, I noticed that many of the > "attributes" to the command ":command" can be abbreviated. Namely: > instance: > > -n[args] > -com[plete] > -ra[nge] > -cou[nt] > -re[gister] > -ban[g] > > I didn't ever know this before. No wonder! As far as I can tell, there > is nothing at all in the docs that says this can be done. It's not in > ":h :command" after scrolling down. It's not in usr_40.txt. Even > ":helpg" comes up empty when fed "-n=", "-ra=", etc. > > This is VERY useful info and I could really have used it years ago. > Please add it to the docs. It should be included in the relevant > subheadings of ":h :command", such as ":h command-nargs" and so forth. > > One shouldn't have to be poking through a super-complicated syntax file > to discover things like this :) > > > In fact, not only was none of this in the docs, but I couldn't find ANY > *usages* of it ANYWHERE in the entire runtime directory, except for 4 > occurrences of "-na=" (which isn't even as short as it could be) in the > vimball > plugin. > > So I conclude I'm not the only one who didn't know about it :)
Your point about the lack of documentation is well taken. However, I would not conclude that absence of use is evidence of absence of knowledge. The only time those arguments are used is when defining a command, which is almost always done in one's .vimrc or in a plugin and hardly ever done from the command line, so there is little advantage to the shorter form. Further, the shorter form are significantly less intelligible. Whenever I put a Vim command in my .vimrc or in a plugin, I almost always use the long form of all commands simply because I think it is easier to understand. If I looked at a command definition that contained "-ban" for example, I would wonder what the heck that meant, whereas I would immediately know what "-bang" meant. When I'm defining a command, the difference in time or space between typing the long form and the short form is insignificant. Regards, Gary -- -- You received this message from the "vim_dev" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "vim_dev" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
