[gentoo-portage-dev] Re: [PATCH] repoman: declare '-x', '--xmlparse' command line options obsolete

[Duncan]

Göktürk Yüksek posted on Thu, 19 May 2016 18:45:29 -0400 as excerpted:

> Repoman pulls in lxml unconditionally now and performs metadata checks
> by default. This behavior makes these command line options obsolete
> since forcing the default makes little sense. Declare them obsolete
> instead of removing them for backwards compatibility.

I like the general idea, but not the implementation. =:^(

Example...

> -\fB-x\fR, \fB--xmlparse\fR
> -Forces the metadata.xml parse check to be carried out
> +\fB-x\fR, \fB--xmlparse\fR (OBSOLETE)


Often I'll find some online resource that recommends some command, but I 
(arguably wisely!) prefer to check the manpage to see what a command and 
its recommended options actually do, as opposed to just running it.  That 
way, in addition to protecting myself from rm -rf .* type advice as 
sometimes found online, I learn as I go and can then apply the new 
knowledge to similar situations, instead of being lost when an arbitrary 
command copied without understanding doesn't work.

Or maybe I'm simply trying to fix an old, poorly documented script that 
just broke, and am trying to figure out what some command therein 
actually does.

The problem is outdated options with no hint as to what they actually did 
before they were obsoleted and how to proceed with updating them for use 
with newer versions.  Were they obsoleted by more flexible options so the 
old version isn't needed but I need to figure out what new option to use 
and its format?  Is that behavior now the default?  Was that 
functionality removed and thus is no longer available?

So please, don't just declare it obsolete without saying what it actually 
did and if it applies, what the current equivalent might be.  Doing so is 
if anything even more frustrating to someone trying to figure out what 
the option actually did, than removing it from the documentation entirely!

So, perhaps (I'm not going to attempt formatting)...

--xmlparse (Obsolete, formerly forced a metadata.xml parse check but 
that's now default behavior.)

That way, anyone seeing the option somewhere in old code will still be 
able to lookup what it did, and know that they can simply mentally ignore 
that option when mentally tracing the old code in their head and delete 
it in their updated version, because it's now the default.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman