Re: please cut up help text of xargs into manageable translatable chunks

[Bernhard Voelker]

Hi Benno,

sorry for the late reply, but Jay was still waiting for my
signed papers anyway (I hope it's done now).

On 02/10/2013 10:01 PM, Benno Schulenberg wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 8, 2013, at 23:01, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
>> Here's the fix.
> 
> Looks good, except...  I don't like the misalignment caused
> by specifying optional arguments also for the short option.
> Why not extend the introductory phrase to say:
> 
>   "Mandatory and optional arguments to long options are
>   also mandatory or optional for the short option.\n"
> 
> Gnulib, glibc and tar, for example, use the following phrase:
> 
>   "Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also
>   mandatory or optional for any corresponding short options."

I slightly disagree - it's sometimes not so easy for the user
to remember how mandatory and optional option's arguments have
to be or can be passed. The following example illustrates this:

  -I R                         same as --replace=R (R must be specified)
  -i[R], --replace[=R]         replace R in initial arguments with names read

While R *can* be separated by a space from the -I option (i.e. mandatory),
it *must* be passed without a space for the -i option (i.e. optional).
Therefore, this reminds the user about how to do it correctly.

You mentioned coreutils below - they're doing it like this. ;-)

> In my opnion it is not necessary to say that square brackets
> indicate optional arguments -- the reader has to know this
> already in order to understand the synopsis.

Removed.

> And for --help and --version, why not use the standard ones
> and put them at the end, like several coreutils and util-linux
> commands start doing?

Done, plus
* splitted the "mandatory" sentence from the program description,
* capitalized MAX-PROCS in the -P description as you noted in the
  other mail,
* moved the equal sign into the square brackets: --replace[=R].

Attached you'll find the updated patch.

Have a nice day,
Berny

usage-separate-descriptions-v4.patch
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