Less quoting in error messages

[birkenfeld]

IMO this is a bit too much quoting:

error: The following required arguments were not supplied:
        '<pattern>'

Either 'pattern' or <pattern> would be enough.

[kbknapp]

This was originally set up because of args that have spaces in them (-x <value>..., or -y <value1> <value2>etc.) so that people wouldn't be confused and think perhaps it's two arguments missing a \n

For now, I'd say we leave the current implementation, but I'm open to opposing arguments if you can sway me 😉

[birkenfeld]

Would this be printed like this:

error: The following required arguments were not supplied:
        -x <value>
        -y <value1> <value2>

Not sure I understand the possible confusion.

[kbknapp]

I've been thinking about this specifically since you mentioned it, and the more I think about it the more I agree with you. The quoting does add additional noise for little to no gain.

I think what I was originally "worried" about could otherwise be passed off as poor CLI design anyways...and I'm not sure we need to be in the business of catering to every edge case. The "poor design" I'm thinking of is a single positional argument with more than one value.

error: The following required arguments were not supplied:
        <pos1>
        <pos2_val1> <pos2_val2>

But like I said, that's a stretch and super edge case.

I'll edit this title and remove quoting from certain instances tracking for 1.4.6. @birkenfeld (and all) what's your thought on quoting inside error sentences? I.e. error: The argument '-a' can't be used with '-b <value>'?

[sru]

@kbknapp I think quoting inside error sentences is fine.

[birkenfeld]

I agree.