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elm / compiler

Compiler for Elm, a functional language for reliable webapps.
https://elm-lang.org/
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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Somehow help people learn about ELM_HOME when they need it #1846

Open malaire opened 5 years ago

malaire commented 5 years ago

elm --help should mention that you can set home directory with ELM_HOME.

evancz commented 5 years ago

Why do you think this? I think elm --help should be the shortest possible text that introduces people to the tool. This information seems like something people need for relatively expert/custom configurations.

malaire commented 5 years ago

I have seen two questions today (one in Discourse, other in Slack beginners) which were both solved by telling that ELM_HOME exists. First person had tried elm make --help to see what configuration options there are, but ELM_HOME wasn't mentioned. [1]

None of the elm ... --help options seems to mention ELM_HOME, nor could I find any documentation which mentions it.

Maybe this don't need to be mention at main help elm --help if that needs to be kept simple, but that should at least mention where configuration like this is documented.

[1] https://discourse.elm-lang.org/t/how-to-get-around-elm-make-error-on-getappuserdatadirectory/2551

evancz commented 5 years ago

Where is this sort of information documented with other languages? Can you find links to docs in other languages so I can learn how they do it over there?

pdamoc commented 5 years ago

For unix like systems, a lot of the time this kind of information is found in the man page. (e.g. python, ruby, node)

Another way of handling this is by ending the short help generated with --help with a link where people can find out more (ghc does this).

Adding a paragraph at the end of the elm install section of the Install page of the guide might be sufficient.

evancz commented 5 years ago

Can you find links to docs in other languages so I can learn how they do it over there?

I want to see it myself. I am specifically interested in documenting environment variables.

ivanhernandez commented 5 years ago

In go

go help

Shows you can do:

go help environment

That shows all environment possible settings (very nice, I like this)

In .net core

First time run, shows you can set an environment variable for telemetry disabling.

Also:

dotnet --info

Show an Url you can check from additional information (for .net runtimes instead of environment variables, though):

To install additional .NET Core runtimes or SDKs:
  https://aka.ms/dotnet-download

Haskell

I'm not sure about this, but I would say cabal has some way to show environment settings.

dullbananas commented 3 years ago

it should be documented in elm install --help