PATCH: Re: (forw) --help able programs and completion]

[Sven Wischnowsky <wischnow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[ moved to workers ]

Bart Schaefer wrote:

> ...
> 
> } The one who wrote it probably should have documented it
> } somewhere.
> } 
> } I /think/ it wasn't me this time.
> 
> This is very interesting.
> 
> The earliest mention of _use_lo in the zsh-workers archive is PWS saying
> "What happened to _use_lo?  I don't remember removing it." just before he
> made the 3.1.6-test-1 release.  That's the first time it shows up in my
> home CVS repository, too.  The ChangeLog-Release file doesn't mention it
> at all until Sven started patching it (and the entire contents except for
> the comment at the top have long been Sven's doing, even if he didn't
> create the file originally).

Hm. Ok, ok. Here is a patchlet that also tries to emphasize compdef
because this is almost becoming a FAQ.

> Of course, the ChangeLog also doesn't make any mention of when _arguments
> acquired the internals of _long_options.

Lost when moving to CVS, I guess.

Bye
 Sven

Index: Doc/Zsh/compsys.yo
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/zsh/zsh/Doc/Zsh/compsys.yo,v
retrieving revision 1.73
diff -u -r1.73 compsys.yo
--- Doc/Zsh/compsys.yo	2000/06/22 08:42:36	1.73
+++ Doc/Zsh/compsys.yo	2000/06/27 13:18:41
@@ -277,6 +277,20 @@
 )
 enditem()
 
+The tt(compdef) function is the place to turn to when one wants to
+define what the completion system should complete for a certain
+command.  The function named can of course be one of the functions
+supplied or one written by the user.  For example, if one has a
+command tt(foo) that gets process identifiers as arguments, one could
+do:
+
+example(compdef _pids foo)
+
+using the tt(_pids) function from the distribution to generate the
+process identifiers.  Not also the tt(_use_lo) function described
+below, which can be used to complete options for commands that
+understand the `tt(-)tt(-help)' option.
+
 texinode(Completion System Configuration)(Control Functions)(Initialization)(Completion System)
 sect(Completion System Configuration)
 cindex(completion system, configuration)
@@ -2672,6 +2686,25 @@
 
 Like tt(_tags) this function supports the tt(-C) option to give a
 different name for the argument context field.
+)
+findex(_use_lo)
+item(tt(_use_lo))(
+This function is a simple wrapper around the tt(_arguments) function
+described below.  It can be used to automatically complete long
+options for commands that understand the `tt(-)tt(-help)' option
+(`tt(_use_lo)' is for `use long options').  It is not intended to be
+used from completion functions but as a top-level completion function
+in its own right.  For example, to enable option completion for the
+commands tt(foo) and tt(bar), one would call:
+
+example(compdef _use_lo foo bar)
+
+in one of the initialization files after the call to tt(compinit).
+
+The default installation uses this function only to generate
+completions for some GNU-commands because to complete the options, the 
+command has to be called and hence it shouldn't be used if one can't
+be sure that the command understands the `tt(-)tt(-help)' option.
 )
 findex(_arguments)
 item(tt(_arguments) var(spec) ...)(

--
Sven Wischnowsky                         wischnow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx