[notmuch] On "search-tags" vs. "search --for tags" (was: search-tags and tag completi...

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+From: Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org>\r
+To: Jan Janak <jan@ryngle.com>, notmuch@notmuchmail.org\r
+In-Reply-To: <87pr7a5aaj.fsf@ryngle.com>\r
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+Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:23:37 -0800\r
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+Subject: [notmuch] On "search-tags" vs. "search --for tags" (was:\r
+       search-tags and tag completion in notmuch.el)\r
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+On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:56:04 +0100, Jan Janak <jan@ryngle.com> wrote:\r
+> I considered implementing 'notmuch search --output=tags' (as we\r
+> discussed in another email), but it turned out that:\r
+> \r
+>   * Having 'notmuch search-tags' would be consistent with Carl's\r
+>     'notmuch search-messages'.\r
+\r
+Yes, but I just put that out as an RFC. I didn't actually push it out in\r
+that form, (and my big concern was overwhelming the user with a lot of\r
+different top-level commands).\r
+\r
+>   * 'notmuch search' supports other command line options (--first,\r
+>     --max-threads, --sort) and these would only work when the user uses\r
+>     the command to search for messages.\r
+\r
+Fortunately, the --first and --max-threads options are gone now. So some\r
+of that concern is gone now.\r
+\r
+>   * 'notmuch search-tags' is easier on fingers than \r
+>     'notmuch search --output=tags' :-).\r
+\r
+We can shorten the command with something like:\r
+\r
+       notmuch search --for=tags\r
+\r
+Is that any better? I don't love the '=' there, and might prefer:\r
+\r
+       notmuch search --for tags\r
+\r
+But that complicates the option parsing just a bit, (which I shouldn't\r
+really care about since what we're designing here is an interface that\r
+is easy for the user).\r
+\r
+In any case, I don't expect people typing at the command-line to do\r
+things like search for tags nearly as often as searching for\r
+threads. And that's really the biggest reason I *do* want to put this\r
+functionality behind a command-line option. I'd like to have a fairly\r
+short number of top-level commands that are each something a person at\r
+the command-line would be likely to use fairly regularly.\r
+\r
+Thanks that are more likely to be used by scripts, (such as\r
+--format=html), should be hidden behind options.\r
+\r
+-Carl\r