[jboss-as7-dev] proposed cli changes

Mon Mar 14 07:14:13 EDT 2011

Also, getting rid of leading spaces when entering a command before parsing it, e.g.:
[/] connect
Unexpected command ' connect'. Type 'help' for the list of supported commands.
[/]connect #works
[/]  :add-system-property(name=foo,value=bar) 
Unexpected command ' :add-system-property(name=foo,value=bar) '. Type 'help' for the list of supported commands.

On 14 Mar 2011, at 11:10, Darran Lofthouse wrote:

> On 03/14/2011 11:02 AM, Kabir Khan wrote:
>> A nice feature would be some history between cli sessions
>> On 9 Mar 2011, at 12:35, Dimitris Andreadis wrote:
> 
> +1 - when I was using it the other day the first thing I tried was pressing the up arrow to get the commands from my last session.
> 
>> 
>>> +1, Max's suggestion make sense to me.
>>> 
>>> On 07/03/2011 19:03, Max Rydahl Andersen wrote:
>>>>>>> Max, Emanuel and I discussed the usability aspects of the cli today. We
>>>>>>> agreed on the following:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 1) drop the '/' prefix for the commands;
>>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> How does this relate to the discussion of low-level commands vs high level?
>>>> 
>>>> It was a long discussion - but let me see if I can summarize what drove this.
>>>> 
>>>> There are some subjectivity in parts of this but mostly its driven by not making the
>>>> shell being "weird" compared to what users otherwise sees in the wild...thus / is suggested as a separator to match filesystem and url paths.
>>>> 
>>>> When starting up the cli it also just feels so weird and wrong to require typing / to get to a command
>>>> (unless of course you are an IRC guy - but thats not really the audience we cater to is it  ?:)
>>>> 
>>>> Thus my suggestion was to make the logic so if you just type a string, i.e. "help"
>>>> then it will mean "execute the command or alias named help" nothing else. Just like a normal shell.
>>>> 
>>>> If you want to "execute" something in the current node/path you need to (just like in a bash/zsh etc. without a PATH setup)
>>>> to put ./<path>:<operation>   to execute it.
>>>> 
>>>> so the suggested syntax allow you to type things like:
>>>> 
>>>> jboss-admin.sh
>>>> $ connect
>>>> [/]  # default connect is root.
>>>> $ cn subsystem=web
>>>> [/subsystem=web]
>>>> $ :read-resource-configuration    #executing operation against current node.
>>>> $ ..:read-resource-configuration # executing against parent node (not sure if this should actually be ../:read-resource-configuration?)
>>>> 
>>>> $ cn ../hosts=undefined/server=server1  # up one level and into the path.
>>>> [/hosts=undefined/server=server1]
>>>> $ /subsystem=web:read-resource-configuration # execute based on root ignoring the current node
>>>> [/hosts=undefined/server=server1]
>>>> $ rr     # a command/alias that will execute :read-reosource-configuration
>>>> <return the result>
>>>> 
>>>> We even discussed if it should be legal to do:
>>>> [/hosts=undefined/server=server1]
>>>> $ =server2:read-resource-configuration    # execute the operation in context of current nodetype, but change the name vs requiring eplicit typing.
>>>> 
>>>> $../server=server2:read-resource-configuration
>>>> 
>>>> With this tab completion still can know if it should be completing names, children or operations AND we get a "navigational" syntax that mimicks  well known paths.
>>>> 
>>>> We could even go all the way and allowed  / instead of = you could actually copy the paths directly between your curl/browser and the cli - only diff would be the operation syntax.
>>>> 
>>>> Hope that gave some more context - at least with these changes the CLI navigation doesn't feel so alien to newbies...their brains can spend more
>>>> energy to actually understand the semantics of the operations than the syntax.
>>>> 
>>>> /max
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Other than that question, what you describe here sounds fine (including
>>>>> the 'cd' alias, which I know would be what I'd naturally use).
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 2) instead of '~' signifying the root node use '/';
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 3) instead of ',' as a node separator in the address (node path) use
>>>>>>> '/'. so the format of an operation will look like
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> [node-type=node-name (/node-type=node-name)*] : operation-name
>>>>>>> ['('param=value (,param=value)*')']
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> This (2 and 3) will make the path look more linux-like, so hopefully
>>>>>>> more friendly for an admin.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 4) in the same spirit, the tab-completion for operations will start with
>>>>>>> './', e.g. './subsystem=web/connector=http:read-resource'
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> or '/' to start from the root (if the current address (prefix) is
>>>>>> something other than the root). e.g.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> [subsystem=web/connector=http] /subsystem-threads:read-resource
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 5) for the command names, Max likes
>>>>>>> cn (change node) - current /prefix or /to.
>>>>>>> cwn (current working node) - again current /prefix or /to w/o arguments.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I'd even go for cd to change the node. The reason I didn't add it
>>>>>>> originally was 'directory' doesn't belong here. But cd is kind of habit
>>>>>>> for this kind of thing, so I could add it as an alias.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Any objections or suggestions?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Alexey
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>> jboss-as7-dev at lists.jboss.org
>>>>>>> https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/jboss-as7-dev
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>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> Brian Stansberry
>>>>> Principal Software Engineer
>>>>> JBoss by Red Hat
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> jboss-as7-dev mailing list
>>>>> jboss-as7-dev at lists.jboss.org
>>>>> https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/jboss-as7-dev
>>>> 
>>>> /max
>>>> http://about.me/maxandersen
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>>> 
>>> --
>>> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Dimitris Andreadis
>>> Software Engineering Manager
>>> JBoss Application Server
>>> by Red Hat
>>> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> 
>>> http://dandreadis.blogspot.com/
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> jboss-as7-dev at lists.jboss.org
>>> https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/jboss-as7-dev
>> 
>> 
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> 