[Python-Dev] Python 2.7b1 and argparse's version action (original) (raw)

Steve Holden steve at holdenweb.com
Mon Apr 19 03:44:54 CEST 2010

Tobias Herp wrote:

Steven Bethard schrieb:

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 2:35 PM, Tobias Herp <Tobias.Herp at gmx.de> wrote:

Steven Bethard schrieb:

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 3:31 AM, Tobias Herp <Tobias.Herp at gmx.de> wrote:

Argparse should simply do this like optparse does already. I.e., use '--version', '--help' and '-h' by default, but not '-v'. [snip] The deprecation of the 'version' argument press-gangs people to replace it by parser.addargument('--version', action='version', version='', # the only common part help="show program's version number and exit") What Tobias has conveniently omitted is that there was not much agreement on what the default behavior of the version flag should be. [snip a bunch of Tobias's opinions on what the default should be] But I'd really like a consensus about the correct behavior, and so far I have not seen that. We'll have one ;-) I hope you can understand that I don't consider your personal opinion alone as a consensus. Be careful. There have been other personal opinions, and there are very many *X programs which form a standard which should be followed, and this is a /very strong/ argument, IMO. What you conveniently omitted is that I collected a lot of examples and commented the choices (part of which were part of your poll). Unfortunately you completely ignored these very prosaic arguments. By the way, I just had a look at your poll (currently 81 votes). Correct me if I'm wrong, but... - AFAICS, you didn't provide your audience with any background information, e.g. - how optparse does it (and migration should be as easy as possible, right?) - the existing de-facto standard "--version [-V]" - the choice which reflects my proposal got the most votes (46.9% currently) - 42.0% voted for dropping the version argument, which is a minority (bzw., do you really think the 46.9% would like the version argument to be deprecated?!) which apparently didn't consider the optparse migration/analogy issue. Furthermore, nobody who dislikes the version feature is forced to use it. If 60% had voted for removal of a feature which is important and convenient for 40%, would you remove it? Really? IMO, removal of a feature which is used by 40% is out of the question; and if removal is, deprecation is as well. Back to the actual numbers: dropping the argument is impossible (/and so is deprecation/); drop the 42.0%. Take the remaining numbers: 46.9% voted for the change, and 11.1% against it. Do you take your own poll seriously? When was this ever a democracy?

regards Steve

Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 See PyCon Talks from Atlanta 2010 http://pycon.blip.tv/ Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/ UPCOMING EVENTS: http://holdenweb.eventbrite.com/

More information about the Python-Dev mailing list