From 5c70d4d8364927bce4f58bb1dd5eff3a804dd884 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Rohan Kumar Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2022 18:06:24 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] Mention color output for non-tty --- content/posts/cli-best-practices.md | 9 ++++++++- 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/content/posts/cli-best-practices.md b/content/posts/cli-best-practices.md index c596945..8434241 100644 --- a/content/posts/cli-best-practices.md +++ b/content/posts/cli-best-practices.md @@ -14,12 +14,17 @@ outputs: - html - gemtext --- +
+

Preface

+ This began as a reply to another article by Lucas F. Costa; it lists practices to improve user-experience (UX) of command-line interfaces (CLIs). It comes from a good place, and has some good advice: I particularly like its advice on input-validation and understandable errors. Unfortunately, a number of its suggestions are problematic, particularly from an accessibility perspective. This is a "living article" that I plan on adding to indefinitely. If you like it, come back in a month or two and check the "changelog" link in the article header.

Note: this article specifically concerns CLIs, not full-blown textual user interfaces (TUIs). It also focuses on utilities for UNIX-like shells; other command-line environments may have different conventions.

+
+ {{}} Problematic patterns @@ -128,8 +133,10 @@ $ moac - 2. Be safe. If a tool makes irreversible changes to the outside environment, add a `--dry-run` or equivalent option. +3. If your tool has color output: disable color when the output is not a [TTY](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tty_(Unix)), unless the user explicitly force-enables color via a command-line flag. Many tools support a `--color` flag that accepts the values "always", "never", and "auto". + More opinionated considerations {#more-opinionated-considerations} ------------------------------------------ +------------------------------- These considerations are far more subjective, debatable, and deserving of skepticism than the previous recommendations. There's a reason I call this section "considerations", not "recommendations". Exceptions abound; I'm here to present information, not to think on your behalf.