[main] command-line argument +a:b is parsed as row:col, contradicting man page

[midichef]

Small description
vd sample_data/benchmark.csv +:0:2 opens the sheet with the cursor at the third column.

Expected result
The documentation suggests it should open at the third row, not column:

visidata/visidata/man/vd.txt

Line 10 in 581cdf1

vd [options] [input ...] +toplevel:subsheet:col:row

What's the correct order here: +col:row or +row:col? I've got a PR to fix some bugs in handling the initial row/columns passed in the +a:b argument. Should I match the man page and docstrings which say col:row? Or the existing behavior and the tests in features/slide.py, which do row:col?

Additional context
saul.pw/VisiData v3.1dev

[anjakefala]

@aborruso, this feature is your request! Can you please tell midichef your preferences for its syntax? =)

[anjakefala]

(Nice catch, midichef)

[aborruso]

Tomorrow I try to remember what the request was and then I answer you. Thank you very much

[aborruso]

Tomorrow I try to remember what the request was and then I answer you. Thank you very much

[anjakefala]

When I went to look up the original request, it seems like you cared about selecting the top-level sheet from the CLI! #214 (comment) Not selecting a specific row/column. It wasn't you who originally proposed the orderl. =)

Saul designed it originally row:col. I think he chose that because VisiData is row-oriented, and that makes sense to me. I possibly accidentally wrote the documentation as col:row because I often think in a column-oriented fashion. Since VisiData is row-oriented, I vote we keep the existing behaviour, and fix the documentation. I can go ahead and fix it.

[anjakefala]

I thought about it some more.

i think probably keeping it row:col is the default approach, because we might silently break folks CLI usage with an abrupt change.

But since you did start this conversation midichef, I would love to hear yours, aborruso's and anyone else's preferences. Personally col:row felt more intuitive to me. If this is true for lots of other folks, it possibly makes sense to change it.

[midichef]

For a single argument, +row makes sense. It matches the behavior of other programs, like vim +3 and tail +3 (for tail in GNU coreutils). Which is probably where it came from.

For the case of two arguments, +a:b, to me the more intuitive meaning is col:row. It matches the general pattern of geometry for coordinates being given in the order (x,y). For example, that's how vim specifies geometry:

gvim -geometry 80x63+8+100
This creates a window with 80 columns and 63 lines at position 8 pixels from
the left and 100 pixels from the top of the screen.

I agree we should think it over, as it's definitely possible that changing tocol:row may break some scripts that rely on +:row:col. But my guess is that hardly anyone has been using it. Because nobody has complained that the simpler argument pattern +row:col (with only one colon, not two) has been broken for quite some time. It worked on visidata 2.8, but not in 2.9 and after. (At least, on my system.) That simpler form vd +2:2 currently sets the row, but not the column, because the column movement command is applied before the sheet loads. To actually apply a starting column, you have to add an extra : after the +, that is, +:row:col.

I've got a set of commits to get the +a:b syntax working, and fix a few other details, once we make a decision here. (develop...midichef:581cdf12b28278aea87ce09f7c32bf8ae1be2f0f:10e532f41225bfa75d3c9bf527812bc308cd7705)

[aborruso]

Thank you @midichef and @anjakefala. It is a command that I have tried to use without much luck and have removed from the daily commands.
I don't have a specific preference, but I prefer a little bit more col:row, as is the case in a spreadsheet.