Re: configure --help has incorrectly formatted help

[Paul Eggert]

> From: Akim Demaille <address@hidden>
> Date: 24 Oct 2001 12:09:59 +0200
> 
> Tell me how to align the other options, and help us fixing bugs.

Well, you asked, so here's my opinion: don't align at all.

I long ago gave up on aligning options.
For example, here's what I do in my --help output:

   -i  --ignore-case  Consider upper- and lower-case to be the same.
   -w  --ignore-all-space  Ignore all white space.
   -b  --ignore-space-change  Ignore changes in the amount of white space.
   -B  --ignore-blank-lines  Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.
   ...

Here are some advantages of not aligning:

  * It looks equally nice with varying-width fonts.
    This is becoming more important with time (e.g. GNU Emacs 21).

  * You waste less room on white space, so the output can be more informative.

  * You don't have to respond to bug reports about stuff not lining up.  (:-)