Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site mcc-db.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!ut-sally!mcc-db!jbc From: jbc@mcc-db.UUCP (John B. Chambers) Newsgroups: mod.std.unix Subject: Re: command line arguments Message-ID: <246@mcc-db.UUCP> Date: Sun, 14-Jul-85 19:56:26 EDT Article-I.D.: mcc-db.246 Posted: Sun Jul 14 19:56:26 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 10:04:33 EDT Reply-To: std-unix-request@ut-sally Organization: MCC (Austin, TX) Lines: 51 Approved: jbc@mcc-db.UUCP From: John Chambers (guest moderator)Topic: command line arguments continued ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Jul 85 23:23:03 CDT (Mon) From: ihnp4!utzoo!henry@ut-sally.ARPA Subject: Re: command line arguments > I doubt the necessity and even the wisdom of seperating an argument from > the option by whitespace. As I recall it, the AT&T standard does it this way on the grounds of readability, not necessity. The "-t/dev/tty" example is an easy one to pick out, but what about "-dfaglop"? Which of those letters are options, and which are an option argument? > I also dislike the blackballing of multicharacter options. Unfortunately, they are seriously incompatible with one-character options and option bundling, both of which are too firmly entrenched to be changed at this late date. There were earlier attempts within AT&T to change the world by legislating a different way of doing things; you don't hear about them because they were failures. People ignored them. Getopt and the option standard have the virtue of being pretty much compatible with the bulk of present practice, which makes it far more likely that they will be *adopted*. > As for multicharater options: do you intend to kill "tail -30"? Since > changing the number of lines is the most common case what's the problem? > At any rate you should allow a simple '-nnn' for a high-usage. The AT&T people admit that existing high-usage programs cannot be changed retroactively. This is a blemish rather than a disaster. I tend to agree that "-nnn" would be nice to have, but am not excited enough about it to fight a battle over it. Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- John B. Chambers, Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., Austin, TX {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!mcc-db!jbc, jbc@ut-sally.ARPA, chambers@mcc.ARPA