nushell / nushell/nushell

Idea: `help about` subcommand

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A:help-system A:std-library category:documentation category:enhancement good first issue
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

Related problem

Current Nu help doesn't have any explanation for core concepts you need to know to work with Nu: the various quotes for string literals, pipelines. These are explained in the book, but are not available at a command prompt.

Describe the solution you'd like

A help about subcommand with articles about general language concepts or syntax that aren't specific to one command or module.
These articles should be discoverable through help --find, like other types of help content.

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context and details

Based on Powershell, which has a series of about_* articles. Hopefully, Nu's equivalent would be a bit less pedantic and verbose.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by examining Nu's existing help subcommand and the implementation of help --find, then compare how the book presents general language concepts such as quotes and pipelines. Done means help about exposes articles for those concepts and the articles are discoverable through help --find.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust, shell
Domain
cli, documentation
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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