Effect CommunityEC
Effect Community•3y ago•
15 replies
Alexander Pankoff (ccntrq)

Feedback on New CLI: Positive API Changes, but Unhappy with Requiring Options Before Positional A...

Hey @Maxwell Brown . Some feedback on the new cli. I just updated to the latest version and am very happy with the new API. 🥳 Defining the handlers with the command feels much more ergonomic. The standardization of withDescription/addDescription, alias/withAlias etc. also removes a lot of confusion. Wizard mode just blows me away.
The one thing I'm not happy with is the change to require options before positional arguments. I often do something like rm DIR, just to find out I forgot to add -r option, then hit arrow up and append the missing option to the command. If I am not mistaken, designing clis like this is currently be impossible with @effect/cli while it was possible with the previous versions. Do you see any chance that this could be reverted back to the old behavior or made configurable? (Like here for example https://hackage.haskell.org/package/base-4.19.0.0/docs/System-Console-GetOpt.html#t:ArgOrder)
I also think it would be nice to include the builtin options into the generated helptext. Currently I'm adding options like 
        help: Options.withDescription(
          Options.withAlias(Options.boolean('help'), 'h'),
          'Show this help text',
        ),
        wizardMode: Options.withDescription(
          Options.boolean('wizard'),
          'Pass arguments via wizard mode',
        ),


to my cli to show these options. This kind of works but conflicts with wizard mode by suggesting these options while you are already in wizard mode.
Keep up the great work.
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