Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail From: Ethan Furman Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Subject: Re: What should Python apps do when asked to show help? Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2016 09:49:04 -0700 Lines: 23 Message-ID: References: <57223b76$0$22140$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> <57223F00.5000602@stoneleaf.us> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de heQWml0cMu+n0xSIBqeSPA484kMaKGUL8Ro/vR1romfA== Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.002 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 1.00; '*S*': 0.00; 'subject:Python': 0.05; 'subject:help': 0.07; 'from:addr:ethan': 0.09; 'from:addr:stoneleaf.us': 0.09; 'from:name:ethan furman': 0.09; 'message-id:@stoneleaf.us': 0.09; 'proficient': 0.09; 'python': 0.10; 'output': 0.13; '--help': 0.16; 'received:io': 0.16; 'received:psf.io': 0.16; 'subject:show': 0.16; 'subject:when': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.16; 'am,': 0.23; 'help.': 0.23; 'written': 0.24; 'header:In-Reply-To:1': 0.24; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.26; 'command': 0.26; 'switch': 0.27; 'accepts': 0.29; '~ethan~': 0.29; 'print': 0.30; 'run': 0.33; "d'aprano": 0.33; 'steven': 0.33; 'text': 0.35; 'something': 0.35; '(3)': 0.36; 'to:addr:python- list': 0.36; 'subject:?': 0.36; 'subject:: ': 0.37; '(2)': 0.37; '(1)': 0.38; 'application': 0.39; 'enough': 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.40; 'show': 0.62; 'charset:windows-1252': 0.62; 'can:': 0.84 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.2.0 In-Reply-To: <57223b76$0$22140$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.22 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-Mailman-Original-Message-ID: <57223F00.5000602@stoneleaf.us> X-Mailman-Original-References: <57223b76$0$22140$c3e8da3$5496439d@news.astraweb.com> Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:107806 On 04/28/2016 09:33 AM, Steven D'Aprano wrote: > I have an application written in Python which accepts -h or --help to show > help. I can: > > (1) print the help text to stdout; > > (2) run the help text through a pager; > > (3) do something else? I think if the user is proficient enough to: a) run the program from the command line, and b) use the -h / --help switch that they are proficient enough to efficiently use said help when output to stdout. -- ~Ethan~