From: ben@bsb.me.uk   
      
   Michael Sanders  writes:   
      
   > When the user passes no arguments, I default to   
   > the panel below, yet I wonder if its expressed   
   > concisely enough to avoid confusion or promote it...   
      
   You've had good answers, but I'll add a couple of remarks that I don't   
   think came up.   
      
   > Syntax: tinybase OPTION - INPUT   
      
   Avoid - as a separator in either descriptions or argument lists as it is   
   used so often for flags.  I can't tell is I need to type it or if you   
   are using it simply as a textual description device.   
      
   > Options (use 1 option per invocation):   
   >   
   > Tag query:       -q 'comma seperated queries'   
   > Tag index:       -t   
   > Tinybase manual: -m   
      
   These options are, essentially, "modes".  The utility provides three   
   things it can do and they can't be mixed.  Some utilities use alternate   
   names: tinybase-query, tinybase-tag and tinybase-manual would all be   
   symbolic links to one executable.  That's probably over the top for this   
   program, but I would describe it as three separate use cases with three   
   separate syntax lines.   
      
   > Input:   
   >   
   > File list: - file1 file2 file3   
   > Stdin:     - < below).  For one thing, you   
   can't cover all the bases (what about <(...) or << Examples:   
   >   
   > tinybase -q 'query1, query2, query3' - *.txt   
   > tinybase -t - *.txt   
   > tinybase -m > manual.txt   
      
   Your examples show me that the - is needed as a required separator   
   (except for -m).  That's not very "unixy".  I would prefer the file   
   names to be assumed and the queries explicit as that is more in line   
   with what old timers might expect:   
      
     tinybase -q query1 -q query2 -q query3 *.txt   
     tinybase -t *.txt   
     tinybase -m   
      
   I.e. the three syntax lines might be   
      
     tinybase -m   
     tinybase -t [file names...]   
     tinybase -q query [-q query]... [file names...]   
      
   --   
   Ben.   
      
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