Re: [Gnu-arch-users] "Newbie-ized help"

[James Blackwell]

In lists.arch.users, you wrote:
> James Blackwell wrote:
>> Btw, its down to 89 now, which is a 51% reduction from the original.
>
> Groovy.  I'm also dubious about 'tla id' being included on the newbie
> help -- I've never used it, which is a reasonable indicator that it's
> not a commonly used command.  Likewise 'archive-setup': once I
> discovered that tag and import would do this automatically, I've never
> bothered with it.

Thanks for your opinion.


>> If you can do a better job, patches welcome. :)
> [...]
>> > How about splitting them by "task"?
> [...]
>> How many hours do you estimate it would take to change the current
>> codebase over to doing what you request? 
>
> I admit I have no idea -- I haven't really looked at how the current
> help system works.

Do you think it might be appropriate to dive into the code and assess
the ease of a change before recommending it? 

>
>>From a brief look, it seems that adding an additional 'section' field
> to the arch_command structure and then having cmd_help use that would
> do the trick?  Hmm, my categorisation had some commands in more than
> one section, so maybe it'd be better to have an array for each section
> listing what commands are in it.  I might have a shot at doing this
> (probably tomorrow).
>
>> Also, how do you think this will be received by people that are looking 
>> for a command name, but can't remember what section its in? (i.e. gdb
>> help disease)
>
> Fair point.  Perhaps only the most common commands could be
> sectionised, and then make "tla help all" (or whatever) show the
> lot...
>

If you're willing to write it, I'm willing to look at it. 

cmd-help.c is ready for a rewrite anyways. :) 

-- 
James Blackwell          Try something fun: For the next 24 hours, give
Smile more!              each person you meet a compliment!

GnuPG (ID 06357400) AAE4 8C76 58DA 5902 761D  247A 8A55 DA73 0635 7400