command line options

[Stuart A. Werbner]

In article <2478 at zyx.UUCP> aj at zyx.UUCP (Arndt Jonasson) writes:
>In article <524 at vsi.UUCP> sullivan at vsi.UUCP (Michael T Sullivan) writes:
>>In article <7634 at brl-smoke.ARPA>, gwyn at brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
>>> 
>>> You miss the point; -? already has the desired property; it does not
>>
>>But using -? only _has_ to say that -? is a bad option.  You are relying
>>on the fact that all programs have good usage messages.  Some just say
>>"Bad option" and die (none of mine do, of course :-).
>
>I don't have much of an opinion in this matter, so I'll provide some
>statistics instead. I tried calling all programs in /bin in a SysV.2
>compatible system with -? as the single argument, and found the
>following:
>
>characteristic			number of programs
>
>Print a usage line (or several)	36
>Ignore it completely, although
> they do take options		 5
>Just say "bad option" in one
> way or another			14
>Do something else		 6
>
>Don't count, since they don't
> take any options, and thus
> don't watch out for any	17
>
>The total winner in silliness is 'wc': it does give a usage message, but
>only after the user has entered end-of-file!
>
>-- 
>Arndt Jonasson, ZYX Sweden AB, Styrmansgatan 6, 114 54 Stockholm, Sweden
>email address:	 aj at zyx.SE	or	<backbone>!mcvax!enea!zyx!aj

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				PLEAEAEAEAEAEAEAEAEAESE?????????