a new user should not expected to know whether to use "--info", "--help", or "-i...

xigoi · 2026-02-23T11:59:19 1771847959

Would you enjoy writing `rm --yolo file` instead of `rm file` every time?

user3939382 · 2026-02-23T12:19:39 1771849179

Not taking a position but the design of rm strengthens the position that recursive by default without flags isn’t ok. rm makes you confirm when you want changes to recurse dirs.

phcreery · 2026-02-23T13:51:08 1771854668

In this case, "file" is the arg, not --yolo. `rm` without any args returns `` rm: missing operand Try 'rm --help' for more information. ```

`oxfmt` should have done the same and `oxfmt .`, with the desired dir ".", should have been the required usage.

xigoi · 2026-02-23T20:48:20 1771879700

I expect invoking a command-line tool without any arguments to perform the most common action. Displaying the help should only be a fallback if there is no most common action. For example, `git init` modifies the current directory instead of asking you, because that’s what you want to do most of the time.

vladvasiliu · 2026-02-23T15:35:27 1771860927

No, but we're not talking about `oxfmt file` here, but `oxfmt` with no argument.

I don't expect `rm` with no argument to trash everything in my CWD. Which it doesn't, see sibling's comment.

watt · 2026-02-25T06:56:17 1772002577

would you enjoy it if running "rm" in any folder recursively deleted all files in it?

aquariusDue · 2026-02-23T17:02:39 1771866159

I know feels aren't the objective truth but I feel like most people would default to running "new-cli-tool --help" first thing as a learned (defensive) habit. After all quite a bit of stuff that runs in a terminal emulator does something when ran without arguments or flags.

rk06 · 2026-02-24T04:35:37 1771907737

I feel most people should refer to manual before running arbitary command. but that's because "crontab -r" has taught me this the hard way.

new devs should not learn these things the hard way