hiding variable names should be default in help output

[kenyee]

Hiding the variable names as described here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65130421/picocli-cli-parser-hide-the-java-variable-name-while-rendering-the-output

should be the default behavior IMHO. I can't see why anyone would want the current default behavior...
e.g., if you use a parser for the option, it prints this out:

  -d, --baseDirectory=<baseDirectory$parser>

Not sure why you'd ever want to show the $parser bit unless you're in some sort of parser debug mode...

[remkop]

Interesting question.

How did you get that variable name baseDirectory$parser? That's an unusual variable name!

Also, please be aware, you can customize unhelpful variable names with the paramLabel annotation attribute.

Most CLI tools that I am aware of do display a parameter label for options that take a parameter.
This communicates to users that the option takes a parameter (as opposed to boolean flags) and gives a hint as to what kind of information the user should provide (a number, a String, a URL, file name, directory, etc).

Some examples: ping, ls and git.

So, I am curious why you believe that hiding the option parameter label should be the default.

[kenyee]

How did you get that variable name baseDirectory$parser? That's an unusual variable name!

    @CommandLine.Option(
        names = ["-d", "--baseDirectory"],
        required = true,
        description = ["Base directory from the repo (useful for mono-repos)"],
        defaultValue = ".",
        showDefaultValue = CommandLine.Help.Visibility.ALWAYS,
        scope = CommandLine.ScopeType.INHERIT,
    )
    internal fun setBaseDirectory(dir: String) {
        baseDirectory = dir
    }

Thanks...paramLabel would cover what I'd want to do (mainly to hide that ugly variable name) :-)
Might be worth hiding the variable name if it's a method?

[remkop]

Oh interesting!
Picocli takes the @Option-annotated method name and uses its "property name" (remove leading get or set and decapitalize the remainder) as the auto-generated parameter label.

Still, in the example you provided, that should result in picocli generating the label baseDirectory, so I still wonder where the $parser bit comes from...

Unless the method name setBaseDirectory$parser is somehow generated by Kotlin? Hm, curious.

Glad to hear that explicitly specifying the paramLabel string solves the issue for you.

[kenyee]

Yep, it's a kotlin'ism....which is why the default didn't work 🙂

[remkop]

Okay, I did some reading and it seems that Kotlin does "name mangling" for internal members so they cannot easily be called from Java. Apparently that is implemented by appending $<SOMESTUFF> to the method name.

I will look at truncating the $ and everything following it from the method name when inferring paramLabel from method names.

[remkop]

@kenyee

I pushed a fix for this, and from the next version of picocli (4.7.2), the $ and everything following it will be removed from the automatically generated paramLabel for annotated methods.

Thank you again for raising this.