[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] avfilter: Handle =help to show Filter options documentation

[Michael Niedermayer]

On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 03:00:45PM +0100, Clément Bœsch wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 02:47:48AM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
> [...]
> > > But why the user should know that -vf filter=help will show help,
> > > instead of setting the arguments for the filter as it could be
> > > reasonably expected?
> > 
> > its what the user actually tried who asked for it IIRC, its what i
> > would try probably
> > its what some other applications support
> > try qemu for a list of cpus its
> > -cpu '?'
> > or
> > mplayer -vo help
> > 
> 
> OTOH the first users reflex with an unknown app is to run ./app -h or
> ./app --help.

which outputs several screenfulls of stuff, not containing a match
for lets say "curves"

If all help isnt displayed by default then what is shown by default
should explain how to find ANY help and describe it in very few
lines

The goal is to minimize the amount of reading & time the user needs
to find what he needs.
If the default help scrolls off the screen but contains the most
important at the top that scrolled off then you already fail there
because at least half the users wont look at whats scrolled off and
probably less than 5% would read several screenfulls just to find out
what to type in to get the full help or a specific subset they need.


[...]

-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated
form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty. -- Plato
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/attachments/20130330/a22e0ea9/attachment.asc>