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

Paul B Mahol onemda at gmail.com
Sat Mar 30 15:27:16 CET 2013


On 3/30/13, Michael Niedermayer <michaelni at gmx.at> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 03:00:45PM +0100, Clement Boesch 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.

I have not that strong opinion on -vf filter=help like i have strong
opinion on hack how it is implemented.

>
>
> [...]
>
> --
> 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
>


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