On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 12:05 PM, John H Palmieri <jhpalmier...@gmail.com>wrote:
> Sage uses non-standard command-line options (e.g., -notebook rather > than --notebook). I propose that we switch to standard ones. Here are > two reasons: > > 1. They're standard, and standards are good. People used to Unix-type > systems will expect our options to work this way. I think if we > decide to continue not using the standard format, we should have a > good reason. > > 2. If we use standard command-line options, we can use an existing > command-line parser, like Python's optparse, instead of having our own > home-grown version (in SAGE_ROOT/local/bin/sage-sage). A standard > Python library package is likely to be more robust than something home- > grown. For example, we can solve trac ticket #21 (and the related > ticket #180) this way. For another example, note that "sage -merge" > works but "sage --merge" doesn't; this sort of thing can be fixed on a > case-by-case basis, but it's harder to even introduce such > inconsistencies with optparse. > > My proposal is: > > (a) first, we include new command-line options but don't turn them on > by default, instead printing a message like this one when you type > "sage [...]" with a nonempty argument: > > Note: Using old-style Sage command-line options. > > To try out Sage's experimental GNU/Posix-style command-line > options > (for example, 'sage --notebook' instead of 'sage -notebook'), set > the > environment variable $SAGE_NEW_OPTIONS to something nonempty. > > To bypass this message, set the environment variable > $SAGE_SKIP_OPTIONS_MESSAGE to something nonempty. > > Running "sage" (with no arguments) would not trigger this message. > (Perhaps we could only turn this on in prerelease (alpha and rc) > versions? Alternatively, a change like this could go with the version > 5.0 release.) > > (b) after a while, we switch this to > > Warning: Using old-style Sage command-line options. > > Sage is changing to use conventional GNU/Posix-style command-line > options > (for example, 'sage --notebook instead of 'sage -notebook). This > change will > become the default soon. Meanwhile, to use this new style (and > therefore > to avoid seeing this message), set the environment variable > $SAGE_NEW_OPTIONS to something nonempty. > > perhaps with no easy way of disabling this message while using old- > style options. > > (c) finally, we turn on the new options, perhaps with an environment > variable $SAGE_OLD_OPTIONS to use the old ones, with the understanding > that any changes in command-line options may not be maintained for the > old version. > > I have patches to implement this which I can post at trac ticket #21 > if people think it's a good idea. I'd be very surprised if my > implementation of the new options doesn't have bugs, but refereeing > and phase (a) would get people to test it out. As far as I can tell, > all spkg-install files for the standard packages would continue to > function: first, they look good at a glance. Second, I applied the > patches, set $SAGE_NEW_OPTIONS to something non-zero, ran "sage -- > sdist", and built the new version without issues. I haven't looked at > any optional or experimental spkgs yet. > > Opinions? Perhaps we should start a new newsgroup to discuss this? :) > Looks like a good plan. This might be a good way to do things portably: http://code.google.com/p/shflags/ > > By the way, while investigating this, I came up with some questions: > > - What should "sage blah.spkg" do? It looks like it's supposed to > install the spkg, although this isn't documented anywhere that I can > see. Should we keep this behavior, or just make the user type "sage -i > blah.spkg"? > > - "sage -log" seems to be broken: it tries to write to the > nonexistent file SAGE_ROOT/changelog.txt. Should we remove it or fix > it? > > - "sage -np" seems to be broken, or at least it doesn't do what I > expect (or indeed anything different from just "sage", as far as I > could see). Should we remove it or fix it? > > - what is "sage -darcs" supposed to do? I don't know what "darcs" is, > and I don't see any packages which seem relevant. > > If I remember correctly, Darcs was the old VCS Sage used before switching to Mercurial. > - what about "sage -axiom"? What package installs axiom? Fricas? > > - does anyone use "sage -crap"? "sage -min"? "sage -inotebook"? > > - how about "sage -gthread" and friends? > > - how about "sage -valgrind" and friends, or "sage -t FILE -valgrind", > etc.? > > I do/did. > For any of these, we have several choices: (1) delete them, (2) keep > them, (3) keep them but don't document them (don't list them when you > type "sage --advanced"), (4) ?? > > -- > John > > -- > To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<sage-devel%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel > URL: http://www.sagemath.org > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-devel+ > unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE > ME" as the subject. > -- Tim Joseph Dumol <tim (at) timdumol (dot) com> http://timdumol.com -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-devel+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
