Re: Command line help options
- Posted by DerekParnell (admin) Nov 29, 2010
- 1441 views
1. Why do you not want to allow the user to see a list of options available to send to your program and why would you not want to use the standard/common help parameters of -h, -? or --help?
- Because the application might not be using the English language.
- Because the application does not have a console.
- Because standards are not laws
2. Why do you not want to indicate to your users which options are required vs. optional?
The OP did not state that they didn't want optional parameters to be distinguished from mandatory ones, only that using '[' ']' to do so is an issue for them.
With standards come instant usability. It shouldn't be removed w/o a very good reason, IMHO. Making your program different than every other program does not provide any benefit, only downfall. If you want your command line parsing to be non-standard, I would recommend implementing your own command line parser.
The Unix standard is not the only standard in use today. For example, in the Windows console environment, the standard is to use "/?" as the help switch.
