Re: RFA: gdb/783 doc change

["J. Johnston" <jjohnstn at redhat dot com>]

Andrew Cagney wrote:
> 
> > J. Johnston writes:
> >  > The following changes the mi documentation to clarify the usage of the
> >  > "--" delimeter.  This delimeter is meant to provide a way to separate
> >  > options from parameters so as to handle cases whereby the parameters may
> >  > start with "-" and be mistaken for options.
> 
> >  > The problem reported tries to use it generally before any parameter list.
> >  > This doesn't work because only the mi_getopt option processor knows to ignore it and
> >  > commands that don't have options (preceded by dash) don't call mi_getopt.
> >  > It is then treated as a parameter which is incorrect.
> 
> >  > I have removed the delimeter from the description of the -data-disassemble
> >  > command as it is not manditory and the delimeter should be treated as optional to all
> >  > applicable commands that support both options and parameters.  I have removed
> >  > it from one of the -data-disassemble examples to clarify that it may or may not
> >  > be specified.
> 
> The documentation is correct, there is no reason for changing it.
> 
> All MI commands should use mi_getopt() as by doing this the MI can
> present a very consistent command line interface to its users.  Contrast
> this to the UNIX and GDB CLI interfaces, each individual command has its
> own eseoteric edge conditions (and the user needs to work around each
> individually).  The ``--'' problem is just one of the cases that
> mi_getopt() handles, another is c-strings (see below).
> 
> In case you're wondering, the commands that don't use mi_getopt()
> pre-date that function's implementation (and one has gone back and
> updated them).
> 
> For the most part converting commands to use mi_getopt() should be
> straight forward.  There are exceptions though, some of the older
> commands pulled a very GDB CLI like hack by accepting:
>         -command -opt x this is the "final" parameter
> when they should have accepted:
>         -command -opt x -- "this is the \"final\" parameter"
> such a change will get messy and might mean replacing the command.
> 
> >  > Ok to commit?
> 
> No.
> 

Ignore my previous post then.

-- Jeff J.