Command line arguments

[david at ztivax.UUCP]

Modern Arguments to main()

>[W.Woody]
>    Like the Macintosh, where (despite Apple Computers) C seems to be the
>de-facto programming language.  Under the Finder (read: Shell), running a 
>program is done by double-clicking the icon representing the program with
>the mouse, and arguments may be passed by shift-clicking the appropriate
>file icons before double-clicking the program icon.  Command lines?  What
>command lines?  Do you see any command lines?

THIS IS A GOOD POINT!!

I am currently porting UNIX fuctionality (nee filter tools, cmd
interpreter) onto a really nice user interface.  This things got
windows and mouse, all that stuff, but more:

You can point at stuff (text in a file, program names, icons, etc)
and use it as stdin/out.  Right now these capabilities are only
available in the systems own one-off programming language.  Soon,
it will be available in C.

WHAT I NEED IS YOUR IDEAS:

Who has good ideas on a C standard which would allow "command line
arguments" to be expanded to include nicer things, like text from
anywhere (within a file, db, ...), or like ????

Should this be left to the "shell" or window manager (or finder
or ... ) ??  Perhaps, but remember, one of the things which makes C
tools so easy to write is that the interface main(argc,argv) is so
intuitive for someone working within a command line oriented world.
If the world is not command line oriented, but icon oriented, the
mapping is no longer intuitive, and perhaps the further development of
simple tools will be thwarted...

mail or respond, at your option...

David E. Smyth
Cubitech Corporation

seismo!unido!ztivax!david