command line argument consistency

Stephen Weeks MLton@sourcelight.com
Mon, 25 Jun 2001 09:03:49 -0700


> When I come up with an argument syntax, I always put a space in except for
> arguments which have a default value.  I.e., I would use
> 	-x value
> if you must always provide a value with -x, or you never provide a value with
> -x.  I would use
> 	-x<value>
> only if just using -x will set some default value (different than no -x).
> Depite that, I would definitely prefer no spaces in the -D case since it is
> really a gcc option and the syntax of that option should be preferred.  Same
> with -I (which you didn't mention).  For -i, either way makes sense to me
> because of the connection with -I.  -l should not have a space, again because
> it is from gcc, and -L.  For -v, I would go with attached because there should
> be a reasonable default (for -v, as opposed to the more silent no -v at all).

OK.  There will be no changes.