[Rubygems-developers] Suggestions regarding new CLI

[Gavin Sinclair]

On Sunday, June 20, 2004, 9:18:35 PM, Michael wrote:

> On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 06:31:46AM -0400, Chad Fowler wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> On Sun, 20 Jun 2004, Gavin Sinclair wrote:
>> 
>> # I'm playing with gem2 currently and have some observations and
>> # suggestions.  (I'm writing 'gem' instead of 'gem2'.)
>> #
>> #
>> # 1. The output of 'gem --help' is rather busy.  I recommend this instead
>> #    (indented only for clarity here):
>> #
>> #         Usage:
>> #           gem <command> [options]
>> #
>> #         Examples:
>> #           gem install -n log4r
>> #           gem install -n log4r --version '> 1.0.5'
>> #           gem query -n log
>> #           gem build -n example.gemspec
>> #
>> #         Further help:
>> #           gem --help install etc.          (help on specific command)
>> #           gem --help-commands              (list all commands)
>> #           gem --help-options               (help on common options)
>> #           gem --help-examples              (many examples of usage)
>> #
>> #         Further information:
>> #           http://rubygems.rubyforge.org
>> #
>> 
>> Looks OK to me.

> Personally, I'd prefer "gem help install" or "gem help", as "help"
> itself is a command too.

I second that.  But 'gem --help' has to work as well, because people
will (reasonably) expect that.

It seems to me the most logical conclusion is this:

  gem --help        (prints general help like above)
  gem --version     (prints version information)
  gem help          (shows list of commands, because 'gem help'
                     expects an argument)
  gem help install  (that's more like it)


The 'gem --help' and 'gem help' dichotomy may seem weird or
contradictory, but seems perfectly sound to me.  What do others think?

Gavin