Re: lilypond too noisy on the cmd line

[David Kastrup]

Mark Veltzer <address@hidden> writes:

> - stderr is called stderr and not stddiag since it is intended for errors. I
> agree that stdout is intended for further processing but lilypond *does not*
> create any further data for further processing so stdout could be used for
> version and other stuff much like other tools. To prove my point here are a
> bunch of tools:
> address@hidden:~$ ls --version > out
> address@hidden:~$ grep --version > out
> address@hidden:~$ nm --version > out
> address@hidden:~$ gcc --version > out
> address@hidden:~$ as --version > out
> address@hidden:~$ make --version > out
> address@hidden:~$ ld --version > out

Uh, the _output_ is defined to be the version info in this case.  In a
similar vein, for all those tools specifying bad options results in a an
error message and a list of all possible options on stderr -- diagnostic
output.  In contrast, calling them with --help tells you all possible
options on stdout -- regular and intended output.

So your contention that "stdout is used for version and other stuff much
like other tools" is just wrong.

stdout is used for the requested output.  If you ask for version info or
help, the version info or help _is_ the requested output.  If you don't
ask for it, it isn't.  And the given tools (namely GNU tools)
consistently distinguish those two cases, contrary to what you claim.

-- 
David Kastrup