Re: gengetopt, anyone?

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Reuben,

> I notice no-one mentioned argp. (I also notice one of autoopts's
> testimonials says that it (autoopts) is simpler than argp!). But from
> a quick look argp seems rather neat; it doesn't need a separate parser
> and code generator, and it's available in gnulib.
> 
> Why aren't I using it?

If you mean to ask "why are so few people using argp", here's the answer why
I'm not using 'argp' in GNU gettext, GNU libiconv:

  1) When I introduce a new option, I have to do 5 modification:
     - Add a variable that captures the value of that option.
     - Implement the semantics of the option.
     - Change main() and the getopt_long call to set said variable.
     - Update the usage() message.
     - Update the documentation.
     AFAIU, 'argp' would allow me to combine 2 of these 5 steps, leaving only
     4 steps. But 4 modifications is not much of a simplification over 5.

     On the other hand, 'argp' has some complexity. I feel already saturated 
with
     getopt_long's complexity.

  2) The 'argp' in glibc has some problem with internationalization, whereas the
     'argp' in gnulib doesn't (fixed by Sergey on 2006-09-09). Quite confusing.

Bruno
-- 
In memoriam Bartolomé Blanco Márquez 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolome_Blanco_Marquez>