Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [BUG] tla dosen't handle '--' as end of option argument

[Miles Bader]

On Sun, Sep 12, 2004 at 07:50:57AM -0500, John Meinel wrote:
> Is it an issue with the command line parser?

I think the issue with undo is more that there are lots of corner cases that
make a really useful file undo command slightly trickier than it might seem
at first glance, but there is a selective undo patch out there somewhere (and
didn't it even get merged into the latest release?!?).

> *I feel* like we could switch to a more POSIX-y format just by allowing 
> files any time, and then have '--' only mean no options can occur after 
> a '--'.

I agree that in cases where it makes sense, the `--' ought to be optional.

However the way tla typically uses `--', it separates file lists (and some
other sorts of lists) -- but non-file arguments such as revision names still
precede it.  This is non-posixy, but it's in fact damned useful, because it
allows one to specify such lists while _still_ omitting preceding non-file
arguments (so they get their default value); since these preceding arguments
are by virtue of restricted syntax not confusable with options, this is a
non-ambiguous, and very handy system.

I would object to any change that made me type more just to be pedantic about
some standard in a way that simply doesn't matter very much.

-Miles
-- 
`...the Soviet Union was sliding in to an economic collapse so comprehensive
 that in the end its factories produced not goods but bads: finished products
 less valuable than the raw materials they were made from.'  [The Economist]