Re: [PATCH] On error, do not list all commands, but point to --help option.

From: Wincent Colaiuta <win@wincent.com>
Date: Oct 21, 2007, 08:58 UTC
Message-ID: <ED3FFB7A-861F-47E4-97EA-D7A05552FC2C@wincent.com>
In-Reply-To: <20071021020653.GA14735@spearce.org>

El 21/10/2007, a las 4:06, Shawn O. Pearce escribió:

Show 18 quoted lines

> Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de> wrote:
>>>> On Sat, 20 Oct 2007, Jari Aalto wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> - commented out call to list_common_cmds_help()
>>
>> Well, I'm almost sure of the opposite.  One of the big results of  
>> the Git
>> Survey was that git is still not user-friendly enough.  Your patch  
>> would
>> only make this issue worse.
>
> Actually I think Jari's patch helps for the reason originally
> stated in the message (less output when you make a small typo).
> Though I agree that the commented out code should just be removed.
>
> I actually had to do `git config alias.upsh push` just to keep
> myself from screaming every time I made a small typo and Git gave
> me a screenful of "helpful reminders".

If you want to go really user friendly, how about a check against the list of known commands using a shortest-edit distance algorithm?

   Unknown command: 'upsh': did you mean 'push'?
   Type 'git help' for usage.

Here's just one of many articles introducing the shortest-edit idea, as popularized by Google:

   <http://norvig.com/spell-correct.html>

What do you think?

Cheers, Wincent