[PATCH]: Optional explanation for options

[Robert Collins]

On Wed, 2005-09-07 at 09:04 +0100, Magnus Therning wrote:
> The following patch makes it possible to add explanations to options for
> commands. E.g.
> 
> class cmd_my_command(Command):
>     ...
>     takes_options = [('revision', 'Retrieve particular revision')]
>     ...
> 
> I think it'd be handy for command line completion...

Ok, coming back to the patch...

> *** modified file 'bzrlib/help.py'
> --- bzrlib/help.py 
> +++ bzrlib/help.py 
> @@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
>  """
>  
> 
> -import sys
> +import sys, types
>  
> 
>  def help(topic=None, outfile = None):
> @@ -127,11 +127,18 @@
>  
>      outfile.write('\noptions:\n')
>      for on in options:
> +        if isinstance(on, types.TupleType):
> +            expl = on[1]
> +            on = on[0]
> +        else:
> +            expl = ''

This is somewhat ugly: an api where type inspection is needed is prone
to mistakes, and likely to have headaches. I think a better approach
would be to done something along the lines of this - which is wrong, but
demonstrates the concept:

Make the entries in OPTIONS a list of tuples with default explanations.
Then we get 
class cmd_my_command(Command):
    ...
    takes_options = [OPTIONS[option] for option in ['revision', ...]]
    ...

For commands that want to override:
class cmd_my_command(Command):
    ...
    takes_options = [(OPTIONS['revision'][0], "foo bar does abc")]
    ...

The things that are wrong is that this is overly verbose and unclear.


Rob
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