getopt(3)

[utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!houxi!houxd!houxc!hound!houti!houca!houxs!houxm!houxr!washdc]

getopt(3) is a useful tool for C utilities, but a number of commands
(e.g. mm) are written in shell -- thus a C program can use -f8by11,
(as an argument) , but shell must either use -f 8by11 or use expr or sed
to exrtact the value from the argument - sloww & inefficient.
Regards, Bill houxt!govern