NotesEnglish-like commands

English-like commands draft

The Condensation command line tools use an english-like syntax as opposed to the more common options-based syntax. A typical cn command looks as follows:

cn leniently copy tree HASH from STORE to STORE

while an experienced Unix user would expect something like this:

cn copy --lenient --from STORE --to STORE HASH  # does not work
cn copy -l -f STORE -t STORE HASH               # does not work
cn-copy -l STORE/HASH STORE                     # does not work

English-like sentences tend to be longer, but are generally easier to type, read, and understand. In addition, sentences are particularly easy to auto-complete, a feature available on virtually all platforms nowadays. Users therefore rarely type a complete sentence manually, but are guided through the syntax by auto-completion.