What should Python apps do when asked to show help?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sun, 1 May 2016 05:28 pm, cs at zip.com.au wrote:

> On 01May2016 16:44, Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

>>So you expect the environment variable to say which of multiple pagers
>>you might want, but only when you already want a pager. Okay. How is
>>an app supposed to know whether or not to use a pager? How do you
>>expect them to mindread?
> 
> I think for several of us, we do not expect the app to mindread. Don't
> page for short output!

Is there an environment variable to tell the application what you
consider "short", or should it read your mind?

Personally, I'd rather use a pager for 3 lines than print 30 lines of help
text directly to the console, but others may feel differently.



-- 
Steven