4 patches for repository http://darcs.net/screened:

Darcs has been getting way too noisy lately :-(
The trick isn't to reduce information but to figure out how to structure
it in a useful way.

Sort of a rough sketch.  Not screening this because (1) this is 3 AM
impulsive coding and (2) are we ready for this as a general mechanism?

PS: we should fix the ugliness of the exception printing.

Before
------
% darcs get /tmp/wakawakawake 

darcs failed:  Not a repository: /tmp/wakawakawake (/tmp/wakawakawake/_darcs/inventory: openBinaryFile: does not exist (No such file or directory))

HINT: Do you have the right URI for the repository?

      If so, check with the repository owner to see if the following files
      are readable:

        1. _darcs/format    - might not exist; that's OK
        2. _darcs/inventory - should exist if #1 is missing
        3. _darcs/hashed_inventory - should exist if #2 is missing

After
-----
% dist/build/darcs/darcs get /tmp/wakawakawake

darcs failed:  Not a repository: /tmp/wakawakawake (/tmp/wakawakawake/_darcs/inventory: openBinaryFile: does not exist (No such file or directory))

Do you have the right URI or path? For details, `darcs help not-a-repo`


Wed Apr  6 02:59:19 BST 2011  Eric Kow <kowey@darcs.net>
  * Keyword-based online help mechanism.

Wed Apr  6 03:00:49 BST 2011  Eric Kow <kowey@darcs.net>
  * Avoid shadow warning on Darcs.List.find.

Wed Apr  6 03:07:28 BST 2011  Eric Kow <kowey@darcs.net>
  * Formatting tweak on "not a repository" error.

Wed Apr  6 03:09:14 BST 2011  Eric Kow <kowey@darcs.net>
  * Replace 'not a repository' chattiness with online help.

Attachments

• keyword_based-online-help-mechanism_.dpatch
• unnamed

I've started a discussion on http://lists.osuosl.org/pipermail/darcs-
users/2011-May/026136.html

I'm just going to drop this proposal and archive it as issue2218.  Many 
thanks to Petr for his input/insights!