I frequently run into "darcs get" not understanding the --patches and --matches
options; it seems like a logical thing to expect.

In particular, working with darcs is greatly facilitated by using naming
conventions for the patches, and I often want a repo where only one such set of
patches is present (e.g., working copies for various sub-projects).  Currently,
the easiest way I am aware of is:

  $ mkdir foo
  $ cd foo
  $ darcs init
  $ darcs pull --patches=... bar

instead of the more intuitive:

  $ darcs get --patches=... bar foo
  $ cd foo

ar, 

Thanks for the report. I see how your suggestion would create a shortcut for you. 

I also see how it could make the "get" command more confusing for common cases.
It already has options like "--to-patch", which selects up to a particular patch. 

The "--patches" option matches not a single patch, but many patches. Having both
sets of commands could be confusing. 

To "get" a repository by specifying a recipe for many patches to match is
unintuitive to me, although I see how has a side effect of selecting *any*
patch, all patches which it depends on from the beginning would come with it. 

I recommend that this request be resolved as "wont-fix". 

There is already a simple alternative, which you described yourself. You could
further get rid of the "mkdir" command by using  "darcs init --repodir=foo".

With no further comment on this, I'm resolving this as "wont-fix" as proposed
about a week ago.