Customising VisiData: Expert vs novice modes

[anjakefala]

The following was shared by @saulpw as a comment on this issues. But, I thought it was so cool, that I wanted more people to see it as a discussion post:

@saulpw's text starts here:

Okay, I made it so that there's now a help_columns property on the TableSheet, which can be added to a sheet's help which appears on sidebar. If there are any hidden columns, it includes "gv to unhide N hidden columns"; this is now on the TableSheet and the ColumnsSheet at least.

Furthermore, I decided to make options.disp_help an integer and use it as a gauge of novice/expert mode. When disp_help is:

-1: status messages aren't shown
0: no help is shown
1: sidebar sheet help is shown
2: help is shown for the input widget on the sidebar (this was condensed and moved from the former input help panel)
Higher numbers could show even more help eventually

Now we can specify a max_help int attribute on any Column, which means that if disp_help greater than it, the column will be hidden by default. I set this for a few columns on the ColumnsSheet to be a bit simpler for novices. We can do the same on the StatusesSheet or any other internal sheet; feel free to start a discussion.

But also! I started to annotate options with a max_help number, which removes them from the OptionsSheet if disp_help is greater. And I made all theme options (all color_ and most disp_ options) be -1, so they won't be overwhelming novices anymore. You can still set them in themes or on the CLI, but if you want to play with them "live" you'll have to set options.disp_help = -1 like a proper VisiData developer :)

I plan on doing the same with commands, so that a novice won't accidentally splitpane or turn on profiling or whatever.

[anjakefala]

@saulpw My request would just be to have some sort of dev mode where everything is visible and available! To make our debugging and figuring out what is missing easier. =)