Programmers generally detest to do documentation, so when the user help “UI” is all down to a programmer to define this is often what you get, especially if it’s a small tool.
Yeah this is shitty, and if you’re a programmer reading this and you agree with it, be better. There is no excuse for under-documenting a CLI.
Even when I’m developing, I write out my usage text first, like -o [json,csv,pretty] specify output format(default'pretty') [NOT IMPLEMENTED] or the like.
Speaking for myself a long time ago when I was younger and handsomer but dumber ;) some people at a certain stage of their lives have trouble remembering that what’s obvious for oneself given the context one is in and the information one has, is not obvious for others.
Programmers generally detest to do documentation, so when the user help “UI” is all down to a programmer to define this is often what you get, especially if it’s a small tool.
I never understood that. I’m a programmer and I tend to over-document.
the messiah
Yeah this is shitty, and if you’re a programmer reading this and you agree with it, be better. There is no excuse for under-documenting a CLI.
Even when I’m developing, I write out my usage text first, like
-o [json,csv,pretty] specify output format (default 'pretty') [NOT IMPLEMENTED]or the like.Speaking for myself a long time ago when I was younger and handsomer but dumber ;) some people at a certain stage of their lives have trouble remembering that what’s obvious for oneself given the context one is in and the information one has, is not obvious for others.
I like to think most of us grow out of it.
Morgan Freeman: “But they didn’t”
If you use something like Rust’s clap --help output is very easy to add, all you need is basically a single line comment for each option.
No idea why’d anyone would do this if they expected anyone besides them to use their tool.
Even I myself am not gonna remember how to use my tool a couple months down the line, unless it’s something I use very regularly.
Edit: noticed I read the comment I’m replying to wrong, reworded to make more sense