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Misc: give better help when command isn't found

Open Mikaela opened this issue 11 years ago • 4 comments

Instead of saying Error: There is no command "blah". you could say Error: There is no command "blah". In case "blah" is a plugin, try "list blah".

Line 301 in plugin.py of Misc.

Mikaela avatar Nov 21 '14 20:11 Mikaela

This of course has issue with multi worded non existant commands. Should they be handled by only suggesting "list" if there is only one word?

Mikaela avatar Nov 21 '14 20:11 Mikaela

that should returns PluginName's help, with 'There is a plugin %s, %s' % ('blah',blah's help)

ncoevoet avatar Nov 21 '14 20:11 ncoevoet

As stated when Plugin was removed from default loading (#678), most of plugins don't have other plugin help than "add the plugin help here". Merging of the two would be nice, but that would again bring the issue of plugin helps missing from most of stock plugins and third party plugins.

Please see also issue #903 on Add the help for "@plugin help <Plugin>" here This should describe *how* to use this plugin. and also https://github.com/ProgVal/Limnoria/issues/903#issuecomment-63253981.

Mikaela avatar Nov 21 '14 20:11 Mikaela

I like this idea with changing misc help, but maybe we could extend this change to the unknown-command handling too. As in, trying to call any unknown command that is also a plugin name should direct the user to list pluginname.

Current behavior:

<james> debug
-- Atlas: Error: "debug" is not a valid command.

Preferred:

<james> debug
-- Atlas: Error: "debug" is not a valid command. However, "Debug" is the name of a loaded plugin, and you can find its provided commands using 'list Debug'.

I've always hated the contrast between help and list, and having to explain to people the idea time after time that plugins != commands, but rather plugins provide all sorts of different commands. It's a confusing learning curve for new users in my opinion, one that I'd very much like to avoid.

edit: s/years/users/

jlu5 avatar Nov 26 '14 05:11 jlu5