Hi, If you don't have time jump to the last Suggestion section. I'd like to tell you about my reading cabal source journey today.. I wanted to compile takusen using an older Cabal Setup format (without lag) So I wondered who to find a getDefaultVerbosity method.. There is a defaultConfigFlags functions .. *ugh* taking a ProgramConfiguration I don't need for getting just the :: Flag Verbosity value ? So writing something like getDefault programConf get flags = get (defaultConfigFlags programConf) `mappend` get flags seemed to be a (very verbose) solution at first glance.. I had to use it at two places.. and there was no ProgramConfiguration at one (or I was to lazy to digg it up?) Anyway I reallize that this is kind of complicated so I called for dcoutts. He told me that configVerbose has a default value .. so I should just use fromFlag.. Wait? Why couldn't I found out this by myself? Because the line configVerbose :: Flag Verbosity -- this sets the verbosity .. doesn't tell me about the default value and where I can assume it's set (thus wether it's save to use fromFlag without gettint error..) he, that's haskell with type safety? Not the way I like it.. So I thought there must be better way to handle this. I starte hacking on cabal by instance Monoid Verbosity where mempty = normal a `mappend` b = b and substituting ":: Flag Verbosity" with ":: Verbosity" an "= Flag" normal by "= mempty" Then I've rewritten verboseoption (ugly get) (ugly set) .. to only return Verbosity without Flag as well. *shrug* still doesn't type check? Simple.Commands trouble What the hell is the third arg in ArgDescr ( OptArg) ? Where is this used ? ([ a -> [Maybe String]) argDescrToGetOpt _ ? no, not here ah in commandShowOptions ? Wow.. you can print your commandlines again? wow. But wait that function is used nowhere? To make the long story short: == Suggestion ================================================ What do you think about either a) adding a comment where configVerbose is defined that it has *always* a valid Flag value.. (or can you expect readers to dig into source for hours?) b) use Verbosity instead of Flag Verbosity and throw away commandShowOptions (and the 3 Arg of Simple.Command.ArgDescr) or print -v <normal> even if you haven't specified the arg? c) maybe do b) but keep raw args somehow to print them again instead of printing -v <normal> unless -v <user value> is given? Sincerly Marc Weber