René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"Add colour to `argparse` help","articleBody":"# Feature or enhancement\n\nIn Python 3.13 we added colour output to the new REPL, `traceback` and `doctest`, and in 3.14 to `unittest`, `test.regrtest` and `calendar`, that can also be controlled with the `PYTHON_COLORS`, `NO_COLOR` and `FORCE_COLOR` environment variables:\n\n* https://docs.python.org/3.14/whatsnew/3.14.html#unittest\n* https://docs.python.org/3.14/using/cmdline.html#using-on-controlling-color\n\nLet's add colour to `argparse` help output.\n\n## Survey\n\nFirst, here's a survey of some other CLIs that use colour:\n\n\u003cdetails\u003e\n\u003csummary\u003eSurvey\u003c/summary\u003e\n\n\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003euv\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\n\u003cimg width=\"868\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/31869566-6580-4035-b1f4-d5695b77cfb1\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/eea6349f-9590-4d2e-8cbe-9c0f27784cac\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003ecargo\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3b6834c1-ca9d-4c97-a8c5-e9af660a8144\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/b4722fca-1610-407e-8672-604e3de2baf5\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003ecomposer\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ad691d30-918e-4f88-8ae0-ca5fc2bbd7d6\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/fcb522cc-b6a8-47c4-b784-d121b7acff3e\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003eruff\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/42a962c3-33d9-4fa1-aa35-1ba5a55f650a\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/89f997ee-0a18-49f5-9039-1a5634503d90\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003elsd\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"868\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/03ad0675-1845-43aa-8802-fb6f3edf6d99\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/96b8b582-d40d-4a4e-be51-a04abb15c357\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003efd\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"868\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/cd5caa47-fbda-47f8-841b-c3386534e8e4\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/c4eac0cf-b46d-478f-8604-86d666109e17\" /\u003e\n\nSee also: bat, hyperfine, oxipng, zizmor\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003egh\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"868\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/10be9e0e-3712-4ae5-98c5-7b2dcfe91908\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2ef5971b-c322-440c-8179-08cce3b78b76\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003erich-cli\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4e7dae32-2992-419f-9ddc-92ae735ec3b9\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/abd1bebe-2dcf-4299-9295-de8da11a2500\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003etyper\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e32d0e16-8e2b-4597-97f2-43d9cdbd482f\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/135643a7-7a1a-4786-ab96-3a2d69393b27\" /\u003e\n\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\n\n\u003c/details\u003e\n\nThese fall into four groups:\n\n* uv/cargo: green + cyan\n* composer: yellow + green\n* ruff/lsd/fd/gh: only bold\n* typer/rich-cli: green + cyan + yellow\n\n## Prototypes\n\nI've made prototypes of two of these (uv/cargo style, typer/rich-cli style), and another with blue + magenta similar to the 3.13 REPL/traceback.\n\n\u003cdetails\u003e\n\u003csummary\u003ePrototypes\u003c/summary\u003e\n\n\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003emain\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/20be44cc-ae36-49d1-9911-3b4a0d6ddee6\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/35bfe5e9-5985-4db1-bfe4-a06f0bcf999e\" /\u003e\n\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003euv/cargo style\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/21e21ab2-3e22-46ae-a10a-dd3dcc6c194d\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/e896f6e0-7112-482a-adba-21f1fdaa6dc1\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003etyper/rich-cli style\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a43c721b-0ad0-4087-b241-14bf86c96c9e\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/da4408e4-76c2-42c3-8fff-f1270c701d10\" /\u003e\n\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth colspan=2\u003eREPL style\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"864\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3feb9a82-dfa8-4d29-8613-713db857bd00\" /\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cimg width=\"871\" alt=\"Image\" src=\"https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ab5cdf6a-47a3-413b-bdf1-2dc885dc4c9a\" /\u003e\n\n\u003c/table\u003e\n\n\u003c/details\u003e\n\n\nI think I prefer the typer/rich-cli style: the extra colour makes it easier to pick out the (green) short options from the (cyan) long options, and from their (green) arguments. And it should also be somewhat familiar to Python users who have used typer-based CLIs.\n\n\u003c!-- gh-linked-prs --\u003e\n### Linked PRs\n* gh-132323\n* gh-133380\n* gh-136809\n* gh-136886\n\u003c!-- /gh-linked-prs --\u003e\n","author":{"url":"https://github.com/hugovk","@type":"Person","name":"hugovk"},"datePublished":"2025-02-27T16:41:10.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":9},"url":"https://github.com/130645/cpython/issues/130645"}