My take on this is that if your "usage" info is more than fits on a single screen, then it is too much and should be documented separately.

Usage text should be an on-screen prompt of the syntax of the command that the user can put on the screen to remind him while he is typing the command.

If the text scrolls off the top of his screen, he can't do that. In which case he's better off loading the help info--man; info; html; whatever--in a separate screen from where he is typing the command, so that he can refer between them.

My real bottom line is that if the command syntax is so complicated that it cannot be outlined in less than one screenful of text, it would be much better to allow the user to supply the command parameters and switches through a file. Eg: command -p job.parms

And perhaps supply a separate interactive utility or gui to construct those parameters files.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
RIP an inspiration; A true Folk's Guy

In reply to Re: PIPE less by BrowserUk
in thread PIPE less by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.