Comments on UNIX command option syntax

[BALDWIN]

> Re: Stanley Friesen's comments about proposed UNIX command syntax standard.
> 
> I'm glad that there's someone else on the net who believes that you can't
> improve UNIX by adding more restrictions!
> -- 
> Name: Peter da Silva

<flame on>
Oh, bug off!  The purpose of the syntax standard is to make things more
uniform and easier to use.  Would you rather every command parses args
differently for no good reason??  Do you really want to remember FOR EACH
COMMAND whether it uses -, single letter options, lets you bundle args,
and allows/disallows/doesn't_care about whitespace for option arguments??

The syntax standard DOESN'T PUT RESTRICTIONS on how you want to parse args;
your program won't be silently removed if it doesn't adhere to it.  But if
you want to be CONSISTENT and not have to tell people YET ANOTHER WAY TO
PASS OPTIONS, then you can use getopt(3C) and not worry.  Besides, adding
getopt to programs usually REMOVES restrictions; lots of programs do it
one way or another (bundle/no_bundle, space/no_space), but not both because
it is just a pain to take care of all the cases.

There are always going to be commands that don't adhere to the standard,
like cc, pr, and sort.  But that's OK.  The purpose of writing down the
standard is that when you go to write a NEW command, you have something
to aim for.  And it's not intended to be the best way ever to do option
handling; it is meant to encapsulate the most prevalent means of option
handling currently found in UNIX.

It is NOT meant to encompass every single way options are dealt with in
UNIX.  If it DID, it would be so vague and wishy-washy that it would be
useless.

Do YOU have a counter proposal?  If you do, I'd like to hear it.  It should
NOT be radically different from the way things are done now.  I.e., programs
like ls, cat, ed, grep, sed, etc., should be able to use it without any
problems.  It should be easy to teach people.  If you DON'T have a proposal,
then just SHUT UP.
<flame off>
-- 
						Michael Baldwin
						{at&t}!whuxl!mike