Re: [boost] Re: Re: 1 suggestion + 1 question

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2004-05-07 07:47:21

Neal D. Becker wrote:

> There are 2 choices:
>
> 1) Don't correctly parse some correct cases
>
> or
>
> 2) Give confusing error message for incorrect case.
>
>
> You'll agree #2 is better than #1.

Yes, I do agree.

> So:
>
> -a -3
>
> where -3 is a valid option, and -a takes a value.

Well... if we agree that "-a -3" is a correct case, then it should be handled. 
The reason why I'm suspicious is that it's clearly ambiguous, and I prefer to 
handle ambiguity as error.

OTOH, "token following option with value is always value" is a simple rule, 
which is good.

Things get  more messy if "-a" has *optional* value. Should we parse "-3" as 
value, or as option. In fact, I wonder if we should have optional values at 
all, but that's a topic for a separate post.

> I'm not sure what gnu getopt does in this case (although it seems to always
> do the right thing (TM), because I'm sure I've used this and never noticed
> a problem).

Jonathan say getopt does what your propose, which does qualify as good 
argument.

I've made the change in revision 289.

Thanks,
Volodya