Re: git help -t <topic>: list the help of the commands in a given topic

On Dec 11, 2007 2:07 AM, Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] wrote:

Santi Béjar [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

With 'git help -t' lists the available topics.

Show a hint to get a longer list when listing the common commands.

I like the idea of making the categorized command list in git(7)
available, and agree with you that renaming common_cmds[] to cmd_list[]
and place everything in there would be the way to go.

However, I doubt about your presentation.  Who are the intended
audience and what is the expected way this is used?

The main reason for this was to be able to show a longer list in git
help. But at the end I did this topic thing. The intented audience was
the newbies looking at the "git help" output, for them to have a
longer list. Then the topic part was intended for intermidiate user
looking for even more powerfull commands.

I highly suspect that it would be much easier to use if you add a mode
to "git help" that runs the pager over the categoized command list part
of git(7) manual page, without taking "show me list of topics" nor "show
commands only in this topic" parameters.  It is highly unlikely that a
user knows which category an obscure command whose name he wants to
recall is in, or can guess which category it would be classified in
after seeing the "category list".  It would be much more likely that he
finds it easier to scan (perhaps with "/<string>") the command list with
one line description in the pager.

OK, this makes sense. But I still think that having a longer list in
"git help -l?" with the main porcelain commands makes sense. I'll try
to do it.

Best regards,

Santi