Re: A simple hate today.

[prev] [thread] [next] [lurker] [Date index for 2006/05/26]

* Phil Pennock <phil.pennock@xxxxxxx.xxx> [2006-05-26 17:55]:
> If a program spews a short synopsis to stderr, and refers to
> the real help option, then exits non-zero, for all
> unimplemented options, whilst producing --help/whatever to
> stdout exiting zero, you have something which makes it clear
> that "this option isn't in use, see over there for help" and is
> much more amenable to later implementing Real Functionality
> under that option letter.

There is no reason not to produce a short synopsis of the far
most common options along with that message, no? And heck, you
could even spew the entire help message to stderr for `-h`,
followed by "unrecognized option, use <whatever>" and a non-zero
exit code, if you want to keep it free for later use.

Regards,
-- 
Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>;

• Phil Pennock 16:52 on 26 May 2006
  • A. Pagaltzis 17:51 on 26 May 2006

Generated at 09:00 on 29 May 2006 by mariachi 0.52