Ask HN: CLI design of import/export commands

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5902196
by mlawren • 13 years ago
2 2 13 years ago

I'm developing a distributed project management tool with a command line interface. I have two commands relating to initially copying a project to/from a hub. The export command looks like this:

    prog export PROJECT HUB
This reads well when compared with the English "export this PROJECT to the HUB".

The import command could have the same order of arguments if I also want it to match with the English "Import the PROJECT from the HUB":

    prog import PROJECT HUB
There is possibly some value in having a consistent order with the two commands. An alternative however is to enable the importation of several projects (or even all) at once, by reversing the order of the arguments:
    prog import HUB [PROJECT-1 .. PROJECT-N]
English can also be massaged to work this way "Import from HUB all projects, or the following projects: PROJECT1-N". This also has the advantage that it is a similar order to the "git clone" command which has familiarity for software developers, although git is the last tool I will be modelling my interface on.

Which order would you prefer, and why?

Related Stories

Loading related stories...

Source preview

news.ycombinator.com