Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:9022 comp.unix.wizards:7645
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!gatech!mcnc!decvax!gsg!lew
From: lew@gsg.UUCP (Paul Lew)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: command line options
Message-ID: <143@gsg.UUCP>
Date: 8 Apr 88 16:40:38 GMT
References: <2414@zyx.UUCP> <8039@elsie.UUCP> <7628@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Organization: General Systems Group, Inc., Salem, NH
Lines: 15
Summary: why use '-?'

In article <7628@brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
> 
> Under the existing getopts scheme, typing
> 	command -?
> is guaranteed to get the usage message.

Why use '?' character?  I especially hate to type: command '-?' to avoid
'?' to be expanded by shell.  In Bourne shell, if you dont have any file
like: -a, -x then -? will work without quoting.  This is not true for csh.
Choosing something that is not a special character might have less problem
running on different environment.  How about -H instead?  Any program uses
-H beside sysline?
-- 
Paul Lew			{oliveb,harvard,decvax}!gsg!lew	(UUCP)
General Systems Group, 5 Manor Parkway, Salem, NH 03079	(603) 893-1000