This could get complex fairly quickly. So a couple of questions:
Q: Do we want to create a new commons project or perhaps expand
commons-text to contain a simple library for formatting output. If we do
that we would have to include it in commons-cli which I know is
undesirable, but if text is small enough it should not be a problem.
Q: Do we want to create/support multiple output formatters (e.g. XML,
XHMTL, Text, markdown)?
On Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 5:40 PM Gary Gregory <garydgreg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> If we create something new, it would be nice to have example in tests that
> show rendering to XHTML and XML. This means the abstract superclass should
> not assume console output. A site can use its own CSS for styling. If we
> are flexible enough we should not need to create yet another thing in
> the future.
>
> Gary
>
> On Wed, Sep 18, 2024, 11:23 AM Claude Warren <cla...@xenei.com> wrote:
>
>> I think that help formatting really comes down to building a textual
>> matrix from a list of Options. To do this we need to have several things:
>>
>> 1. A list of headers (text for the columns in the table)
>> 2. The minimum and maximum width for each column. (perhaps as a % of
>> the width)
>> 3. A method that converts the Option into the columns.
>>
>>
>> Interface TableDef {
>> String header();
>> String footer();
>> List<String> columnHeaders();
>> int[] minimumColumnSize();
>> int[] maximumColumnSize();
>> Iterator<List<String>> rows();
>> }
>>
>> abstract class AbstractHelpFormatter {
>> int width;
>> List<TableDef> tables;
>>
>> printUsage(PrintWriter writer, String commandLineSyntax) {
>> // print the command line syntax.
>> for(TableDef table : tables) {
>> writer.println(table.header())
>> for(String line :
>> formatColumns(table.minimumColumnSize(), table.maximumColumnSize(),
>> columnHeaders())) {
>> writer.println(line);
>> }
>> Iterator<List<String>> rows = table.rows();
>> while(rows.hasNext()) {
>> formatColumns(table.minimumColumnSize(),
>> table.maximumColumnSize(), row.next()).forEach(writer::println);
>> }
>> writer.println(table.footer())
>> }
>> }
>> }
>>
>> where formatColumns is a static method in HelpFormatter that will produce
>> a list of Strings necessary to properly display the wrapped columns. Any
>> helper functions for formatColumns() would also be public static so that
>> they can be reused for other implementations.
>>
>> The concrete implementation would be the implementation we currently have
>> adapted to fit this pattern.
>>
>> I have code like this in the new RAT code.
>>
>> Does this make sense to you?
>>
>> Claude
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 2:57 PM Eric Pugh <
>> ep...@opensourceconnections.com> wrote:
>>
>>> In Solr we added some additional formatting methods to our Tool.java
>>> interface to help with formatting the various tools that use commons-cli:
>>>
>>> [image: solr.png]
>>>
>>> solr/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/Tool.java at main ·
>>> apache/solr
>>> <https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/Tool.java#L34>
>>> github.com
>>> <https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/Tool.java#L34>
>>>
>>> <https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/Tool.java#L34>
>>>
>>> PackageTool had a very very custom help output that we didn’t want to
>>> lose when we redid things, so it has a custom getHeader:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> [image: solr.png]
>>>
>>> solr/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/PackageTool.java at main ·
>>> apache/solr
>>> <https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/PackageTool.java#L251>
>>> github.com
>>> <https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/PackageTool.java#L251>
>>>
>>> <https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/PackageTool.java#L251>
>>>
>>> Whereas CreateTool had a short bit of additional text, and then the
>>> options:
>>> https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/CreateTool.java#L70
>>>
>>> And our PostLogsTool doesn’t use any of those extra formatting helpers:
>>> https://github.com/apache/solr/blob/main/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cli/PostLogsTool.java
>>>
>>>
>>> I do wish this had been part of commons-cli!
>>>
>>> Eric
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sep 18, 2024, at 9:52 AM, Gary Gregory <garydgreg...@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Or a new better formatting class?
>>>
>>> Gary
>>>
>>> On Wed, Sep 18, 2024, 9:45 AM Claude Warren <cla...@xenei.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> After more exploration it seems that HelpFormatter is really not designed
>>> to be extended. I will have to rethink this. It may make sense to make
>>> some of the HelpFormatter methods static so that they can be used in
>>> other
>>> implementations.
>>>
>>> On Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 9:29 AM Claude Warren <cla...@xenei.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Greetings,
>>>
>>> I have a case in RAT where we want to append a line to the help text when
>>> the option has multiple arguments or when we have defined a default
>>>
>>> value.
>>>
>>>
>>> I have implemented this in a renderOptions() implementation in CLI 1.8.0.
>>> In both cases we use the Option to check for some state and then append
>>>
>>> to
>>>
>>> the optBuf.
>>>
>>> I am now migrating to 1.9.0 and have to do the same thing, but 1.9.0 adds
>>> more functionality to the default renderOptions() method so I have to
>>> rework my implementation. However, had I not known this was the case, I
>>> would have missed the changes and we would have had some rather
>>>
>>> interesting
>>>
>>> bugs later.
>>>
>>> What I am proposing is a new parameter to renderOptions(). A
>>> "Optional<String> Function<Option>". If the function returns a String
>>>
>>> then
>>>
>>> it is appended to the optBuf.
>>>
>>> This method would be called near the end of renderOptions.
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>> Claude
>>>
>>> --
>>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudewarren
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudewarren
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________
>>> *Eric Pugh **| *Founder | OpenSource Connections, LLC | 434.466.1467 |
>>> http://www.opensourceconnections.com | My Free/Busy
>>> <http://tinyurl.com/eric-cal>
>>> Co-Author: Apache Solr Enterprise Search Server, 3rd Ed
>>> <https://www.packtpub.com/big-data-and-business-intelligence/apache-solr-enterprise-search-server-third-edition-raw>
>>> This e-mail and all contents, including attachments, is considered to be
>>> Company Confidential unless explicitly stated otherwise, regardless
>>> of whether attachments are marked as such.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>> LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/claudewarren
>>
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>
>
--
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