help output: Order default runtime options

[hedgehog]

Sometimes the output is:

Runtime options:
  -p, [--pretend]  # Run but do not make any changes
  -q, [--quiet]    # Supress status output
  -s, [--skip]     # Skip files that already exist
  -f, [--force]    # Overwrite files that already exist

Other times:

Runtime options:
  -s, [--skip]     # Skip files that already exist
  -p, [--pretend]  # Run but do not make any changes
  -q, [--quiet]    # Supress status output
  -f, [--force]    # Overwrite files that already exist

[hedgehog]

ideally would be sorted, a-z, by the long-form option name;

[josevalim]

At first we had an ordered hash implementation to keep the order of the options as they are added, but it was adding a lot of implementation issues. So we just use a Hash, because they will be ordered in 1.9 (and possibly in 1.8.8).

[hedgehog]

this is a biggie when you are writting a cli script - I really need to know what my user help text looks like. No idea what the oerdered hash issues were - ignorance is bliss :)
I'm not sure an ordered hash would scratch the itch... with many options users will appreciate/want a sorted list, so maybe allow the script author to pass a help option: sorted => true ?

[josevalim]

It should be a class configuration option, something along this line:

class App < Thor
sort_options_alphabetically!
end

If you provide a patch, I will merge it. But, sorry, I won't merge your whole stack because having test code in lib/thor.rb looks like a smell to me.

[hedgehog]

I had in mind :ordered_help => true/false in the options hash of:
desc()
method_option()

Not sure what other methods it could be passed to....
Default is true and Capitalized option names are given priority.
Behavior would be the ordered_help would appear above the unordered help, and would respect groupings.
But as you've noticed I'm new to Thor so this might not be feasible given the time.

[josevalim]

The default should be the order you declare. You can always declare alphabetically. Github does not allow to reopen issues, so please do when you have a patch.

[hedgehog]

Good point, the name is ambiguous. sorted_help is the accurate option name.