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From: schlut@oski.toppoint.de (Olaf Schlueter)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: standard practices
Message-ID: <80@oski.toppoint.de>
Date: 23 Mar 91 19:11:20 GMT
References: <1991Mar20.204257.26740@convex.com>
Organization: Toppoint Mailbox
Lines: 32


rosenkra@convex.com (William Rosencranz) writes:
> 
> while on the subject of standards, can i throw in my 2 cents on another
> plead for consistency?
> 
> it would be really nice if unix-like programs on the ST (or anywhere, for
> that matter) would include the following command line switches:
> 
> 	-debug		to turn on internal debugging, if any
> 	-help		to print a usage synopsis
> 	-version	to print current program version
> 	-changes	to print major changes since last rev (or indicate
> 			that this is first rev)
> 
> does this sound reasonable? i have adopted this myself for both unix and
> TOS. i just wish P1003.2 would say something about this...

The unix style is single letter.  As for help, if you use the (posix)
getopt routine, -? should (and normally will) display short usage info
(since getopt returns the option ? for each not recognized option). 
Either -v or -V usually gives version info (it should be possible to
determine the version of a program for bug infos). In GNU this
is accompanied by verbose mode, which is all of "debug" info a user
should get. 

-changes is not needed. Updating the online manual is to prefer.


-- 
Olaf Schlueter, Sandkuhle 4-6, 2300 Kiel 1, FRG, schlut@oski.toppoint.de
"Someone is always the evil in the land, and then the good guys are
marching, the eyes full of sand, into a holy war." Konstantin Wecker