Re: PATCH: add dejagnu-report-card(1) tool (run as "dejagnu report card")

[Rainer Orth]

Hi Ben,

> On Sun, Dec 30, 2018 at 02:17:12AM -0600, Jacob Bachmeyer wrote:
>
>> The "dejagnu report card" form is an alias as long as there is no
>> "report" command -- the launcher sees "report", notes that "report"
>> is not a valid command, appends the next argument, checks again, and
>> finds that "report-card" is valid.  If invoked as "dejagnu
>> report-card", the launcher sees "report-card", notes that that *is*
>> a valid command, and runs with it.
>
> I've never been fond of this because it makes backward compatibility a
> problem. If you introduce a "report" subcommand later, then users who
> have grown to love the "report card" shortcut will have to change
> their habits and/or scripts. One and only one command for each
> feature, IMHO.

an alternative would be to handle this like hg does: as long as a
subcommand is a unique prefix, accept it as such, otherwise show
possible completions.  This is very convenient for interactive use, and
if at some later point a new subcommand removes the uniqueness, users
will learn quickly enough ;-)

For scripting use, one should always use the full form anyway.

        Rainer

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Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University