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Revert "[remkop#1325] DOC: Add section on Short and Long Option Colum…
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…ns to user manual"

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1 change: 0 additions & 1 deletion RELEASE-NOTES.md
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Expand Up @@ -35,7 +35,6 @@ Picocli follows [semantic versioning](http://semver.org/).
* [#1308] DOC: Add example for Option `converter`, improve text for default values. Thanks to [Abhijit Sarkar](https://github.com/asarkar) for raising this.
* [#1314] DOC: Fix use of deprecated Maven properties in README. Thanks to [Philippe Charles](https://github.com/charphi) for the pull request.
* [#1323] DOC: Update Testing section of the user manual for Stefan Birkner's library [System-Lambda](https://github.com/stefanbirkner/system-lambda).
* [#1325] DOC: Add section on Short and Long Option Columns to user manual. Thanks to [Andrei Ciobanu](https://github.com/nomemory) for raising this.
* [#1313] DEP: Bump jline3Version in order to avoid stackoverflow error. Thanks to [Rupert Madden-Abbott](https://github.com/rupert-madden-abbott) for the pull request.

## <a name="4.6.2-deprecated"></a> Deprecations
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195 changes: 85 additions & 110 deletions docs/index.adoc
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Expand Up @@ -690,14 +690,6 @@ The following command line arguments are all equivalent and parsing them will gi
...
----

[TIP]
.POSIX short options and usability
====
Applications can give a subtle hint to end users that an option is common and encouraged by providing both a short and a long name for an option.
Conversely, the absence of a short option can signal that the option is unusual or perhaps should be used with care.
====


=== Boolean Options
Boolean options usually don't need a parameter: it is enough to specify the option name on the command line.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -5659,9 +5651,8 @@ class ParamLabels {

NOTE: For demonstration purposes the above example mixes the all-uppercase (e.g., `NUM`) style label and the fish bracket (e.g., `<number>`) style labels. For real applications, mixing these label styles should be avoided. An application should consistently use only one style.

=== Option List

==== Unsorted Option List
=== Unsorted Option List
By default the options list displays options in alphabetical order. Use the `sortOptions = false` attribute to display options in the order they are declared in your class.

.Java / Kotlin
Expand All @@ -5670,111 +5661,12 @@ By default the options list displays options in alphabetical order. Use the `sor
@Command(sortOptions = false)
----

==== Reordering Options
=== Reordering Options
When mixing `@Option` methods and `@Option` fields, options do not reliably appear in declaration order.

The `@Option(order = <int>)` attribute can be used to explicitly control the position in the usage help message at which the option should be shown.
Options with a lower number are shown before options with a higher number.

==== Required-Option Marker
Required options can be marked in the option list by the character specified with the `requiredOptionMarker` attribute. By default options are not marked because the synopsis shows users which options are required and which are optional. This feature may be useful in combination with the <<Abbreviated Synopsis,`abbreviateSynopsis`>> attribute. For example:

.Java
[source,java,role="primary"]
----
@Command(requiredOptionMarker = '*', abbreviateSynopsis = true)
class Example {
@Option(names = {"-a", "--alpha"}, description = "optional alpha") String alpha;
@Option(names = {"-b", "--beta"}, required = true, description = "mandatory beta") String beta;
}
----

.Kotlin
[source,kotlin,role="secondary"]
----
@Command(requiredOptionMarker = '*', abbreviateSynopsis = true)
class Example {
@Option(names = ["-a", "--alpha"], description = ["optional alpha"])
lateinit var alpha: String
@Option(names = ["-b", "--beta"], required = true, description = ["mandatory beta"])
lateinit var beta: String
}
----

Produces the following usage help message:
----
Usage: <main class> [OPTIONS]
-a, --alpha=<alpha> optional alpha
* -b, --beta=<beta> mandatory beta
----

==== Short and Long Option Columns

The default layout shows short options and long options in separate columns, followed by the description column.

Only <<Short (POSIX) Options,POSIX short options>> are shown in the first column, that is, options that start with a single `-` dash and are one character long.

WARNING: Options with two characters are not considered short options and are shown in the long option column.

This is a common layout for Unix utilities, and can enhance usability:
applications can give a subtle hint to end users that an option is common and encouraged by providing both a short and a long name for the option.
Conversely, the absence of a short option can signal that the option is unusual or perhaps should be used with care.

TIP: It is possible to left-align all options by using a custom layout.
See https://github.com/remkop/picocli/blob/master/picocli-examples/src/main/java/picocli/examples/leftalign/LeftAlignOptions.java[LeftAlignOptions.java] in the `picocli-examples` module for an example.


==== Long Option Column Width
The default layout shows short options and long options in separate columns, followed by the description column.
The width of the long options column shrinks automatically if all long options are very short,
but by default this column does not grow larger than 20 characters.

If the long option with its option parameter is longer than 20 characters
(for example: `--output=<outputFolder>`), the long option overflows into the description column, and the option description is shown on the next line.

This (the default) looks like this:

----
Usage: myapp [-hV] [-o=<outputFolder>]
-h, --help Show this help message and exit.
-o, --output=<outputFolder>
Output location full path.
-V, --version Print version information and exit.
----

As of picocli 4.2, there is programmatic API to change this via the `CommandLine::setLongOptionsMaxWidth` and `UsageMessageSpec::longOptionsMaxWidth` methods.

In the above example, if we call `commandLine.setLongOptionsMaxWidth(23)` before printing the usage help, we get this result:

----
Usage: myapp [-hV] [-o=<outputFolder>]
-h, --help Show this help message and exit.
-o, --output=<outputFolder> Output location full path.
-V, --version Print version information and exit.
----

The minimum value that can be specified for `longOptionsMaxWidth` is 20, the maximum value is the <<Usage Width,usage width>> minus `20`.


=== Usage Width
The default width of the usage help message is 80 characters.
Commands defined with `@Command(usageHelpWidth = NUMBER)` in the annotations will use the specified width.

Picocli 3.0 also introduced programmatic API for this via the `CommandLine::setUsageHelpWidth` and `UsageMessageSpec::width` methods.

End users can use system property `picocli.usage.width` to specify a custom width that overrides the programmatically set value.

The minimum width that can be configured is 55 characters.

=== Auto (Terminal) Width

As of picocli 4.0, commands defined with `@Command(usageHelpAutoWidth = true)` will try to adjust the usage message help layout to the terminal width.
There is also programmatic API to control this via the `CommandLine::setUsageHelpAutoWidth` and `UsageMessageSpec::autoWidth` methods.

End users may enable this by setting system property `picocli.usage.width` to `AUTO`, and may disable this by setting this system property to a numeric value.

This feature requires Java 7.

=== Split Synopsis Label
Options and parameters may have a <<Split Regex, `split`>> attribute to split each parameter into smaller substrings.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -6522,6 +6414,89 @@ This attribute accepts three values:

These legacy mechanisms still work but for maximum flexibility use the variables explained above.

=== Required-Option Marker
Required options can be marked in the option list by the character specified with the `requiredOptionMarker` attribute. By default options are not marked because the synopsis shows users which options are required and which are optional. This feature may be useful in combination with the <<Abbreviated Synopsis,`abbreviateSynopsis`>> attribute. For example:

.Java
[source,java,role="primary"]
----
@Command(requiredOptionMarker = '*', abbreviateSynopsis = true)
class Example {
@Option(names = {"-a", "--alpha"}, description = "optional alpha") String alpha;
@Option(names = {"-b", "--beta"}, required = true, description = "mandatory beta") String beta;
}
----

.Kotlin
[source,kotlin,role="secondary"]
----
@Command(requiredOptionMarker = '*', abbreviateSynopsis = true)
class Example {
@Option(names = ["-a", "--alpha"], description = ["optional alpha"])
lateinit var alpha: String
@Option(names = ["-b", "--beta"], required = true, description = ["mandatory beta"])
lateinit var beta: String
}
----

Produces the following usage help message:
----
Usage: <main class> [OPTIONS]
-a, --alpha=<alpha> optional alpha
* -b, --beta=<beta> mandatory beta
----

=== Usage Width
The default width of the usage help message is 80 characters.
Commands defined with `@Command(usageHelpWidth = NUMBER)` in the annotations will use the specified width.

Picocli 3.0 also introduced programmatic API for this via the `CommandLine::setUsageHelpWidth` and `UsageMessageSpec::width` methods.

End users can use system property `picocli.usage.width` to specify a custom width that overrides the programmatically set value.

The minimum width that can be configured is 55 characters.

=== Auto (Terminal) Width

As of picocli 4.0, commands defined with `@Command(usageHelpAutoWidth = true)` will try to adjust the usage message help layout to the terminal width.
There is also programmatic API to control this via the `CommandLine::setUsageHelpAutoWidth` and `UsageMessageSpec::autoWidth` methods.

End users may enable this by setting system property `picocli.usage.width` to `AUTO`, and may disable this by setting this system property to a numeric value.

This feature requires Java 7.

=== Long Option Column Width
The default layout shows short options and long options in separate columns, followed by the description column.
The width of the long options column shrinks automatically if all long options are very short,
but by default this column does not grow larger than 20 characters.

If the long option with its option parameter is longer than 20 characters
(for example: `--output=<outputFolder>`), the long option overflows into the description column, and the option description is shown on the next line.

This (the default) looks like this:

----
Usage: myapp [-hV] [-o=<outputFolder>]
-h, --help Show this help message and exit.
-o, --output=<outputFolder>
Output location full path.
-V, --version Print version information and exit.
----

As of picocli 4.2, there is programmatic API to change this via the `CommandLine::setLongOptionsMaxWidth` and `UsageMessageSpec::longOptionsMaxWidth` methods.

In the above example, if we call `commandLine.setLongOptionsMaxWidth(23)` before printing the usage help, we get this result:

----
Usage: myapp [-hV] [-o=<outputFolder>]
-h, --help Show this help message and exit.
-o, --output=<outputFolder> Output location full path.
-V, --version Print version information and exit.
----

The minimum value that can be specified for `longOptionsMaxWidth` is 20, the maximum value is the <<Usage Width,usage width>> minus `20`.

== ANSI Colors and Styles
Using colors in your command's output does not just look good: by *contrasting* important elements like option names from the rest of the message, it *reduces the cognitive load* on the user.

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