Phase 3: CLI wiring (--show, -Q count)

[djdarcy]

Phase 3 of #65. Add --show CHANNEL[:LEVEL] flag with custom ShowAction. Change -Q from store_true to action='count'. Update main() to compute verbosity = verbose - quiet. Bare --show lists channels.

[djdarcy]

Phase 3 — Complete

What was done

Modified prime-square-sum.py CLI argument parser:

--quiet / -Q — Changed from store_true to action='count':

parser.add_argument('--quiet', '-Q', action='count', default=0,
                    help='Decrease verbosity (-Q quiet, -QQ minimal, -QQQQ wall)')

This enables THAC0 composition: verbosity = (args.verbose or 0) - (args.quiet or 0). So -vv -Q = verbosity 1.

--show — New flag for per-channel overrides:

parser.add_argument('--show', nargs='?', action='append',
                    metavar='CHANNEL[:LEVEL]',
                    help='Enable/configure output channel (bare --show lists channels)')

• --show timing:2 — Pin timing channel to threshold 2
• --show vals — Enable vals channel (opt-in, default level 0)
• --show (bare) — Lists all 12 channels with descriptions

main() init — Updated to compute THAC0 verbosity:

verbosity = (args.verbose or 0) - (args.quiet or 0)
channels = [s for s in (args.show or []) if s is not None]
out = init_output(verbosity=verbosity, channels=channels)

-q flag collision

-q is already taken by --quantifier. Solution: keep -Q (uppercase, already means "quiet") as the decrement flag. Zero breaking change — -Q was already store_true for quiet mode.

Tested scenarios

All working:

• Basic verify: --expr "verify primesum(7,2) == 666" → true
• -v: Shows timing/expression details on stderr
• --show (bare): Lists all 12 channels with descriptions
• --show timing:2: Per-channel override works
• -Q: Suppresses hints
• -QQQQ: Hard wall, no output at all except stdout results
• -vv -Q: THAC0 composition = verbosity 1, works correctly

Test results

859 passed, 1 failed (pre-existing timeout, unrelated), 7 skipped.

Analysis

See 2026-02-13__18-48-22__dev-workflow_issue65-implementation-plan.md for full design rationale.