| |
| Program options post-review development plan. |
| |
| 0. Convert all documentation to BoostBook format |
| |
| 1. (done) |
| Simplify and clarify interface. |
| |
| It turns out that most users are interested in 'variables_map' class, so |
| it must be possible to use it directly, without even knowing about |
| 'options_and_arguments'. The proposed interface is: |
| |
| options_description desc; |
| .... |
| variables_map vm; |
| load_from_command_line(vm, desc, argc, argv); |
| |
| 2. (done) |
| Better separation of syntaxic and semantic processing, as suggested by |
| Pavol Droba. |
| |
| The problem with current 'option_description' interface is that the |
| 'validator' and 'notifier' callbacks are not really usable by ordinary |
| users --- it's extender's interface. The current 'parameter' function uses |
| those callback to provide user-friendly semantic interface, but it's not |
| documented nor completely worked out. |
| |
| In the new interface, the second parameter of 'option_description' ctor |
| will have two possibilities: just a string and a pointer to a new class |
| 'value_descriptor'. When passed the latter, it will invoke the instance on |
| itself, and then delete the object. A function 'value' will be provided, |
| that will create value specific for a type. |
| |
| Example |
| ("magic", value<int>("n", &n)->default_value(10), "magic value"). |
| |
| The 'value' function will create instances of 'typed_value_descriptor' |
| type, with the following methods: |
| - default_value |
| - interpreter |
| - validator |
| - notifier |
| |
| The 'option_description' class we'll have two attributes to support |
| semantic operation: 'generator', which will handle conversion from string |
| into value (including application of default value), and 'notifier'. Similiar |
| to the the current design, those attributes will be set by |
| 'value_descriptor' instances. |
| |
| Another function, "bool_switch" will create value descriptor for type bool, |
| with default value of false. The function is needed to avoid special-casing |
| 'value' function on bool type, which was considered confusing (Neal D. Becker). |
| |
| 3. (done) Support for positional options. |
| |
| Positional options will be treated uniformly with ordinary ones. User will |
| be able to specify that, for example, third positional option is to be |
| interpreted as option "output-file" with the same value. |
| |
| The user interface will be simple: user will provide two instanes of |
| 'options_description' to functions which parse command line. For example. |
| |
| options_description desc; |
| desc.add_options() |
| ("magic", "n", "magic value") |
| ; |
| |
| options_description pdesc; |
| pdesc.add_options() |
| ("output-file", "n", "output file") |
| ("input-files*", value< vector<string> >("n"), "files") |
| ; |
| |
| variables_map vm; |
| load_from_command_line(vm, desc, pdesc, argc, argv); |
| |
| 4. (done, except for registry) |
| Multiple sources improvement. |
| |
| Need to implement support for registry/environment. |
| Also, must devise a way to handle different naming of option in |
| sources. Lastly, the storing of values into program variables should |
| become part of 'variables_map' interface. |
| |
| 5. Improve documentation. |
| |
| Chuck Messenger: |
| "When code is given for an example program, after the code, give examples of |
| using the program, along with the expected output." |
| |
| Pavol Droba: |
| "I would prefer a few chapters explaining various components of the |
| library, each followed by a reference." |
| |
| Pavel Vozenilek: |
| > Documentation should contain list of compilers the library works on and |
| > also info whether MSVC 6 port is feasible or not. |
| > |
| > The non-Doxygen part of documentation can be also a bit expanded: e.g. I |
| > would welcome some high level overview of the algorithms and structures and |
| > info about expected CPU/memory consumption. |
| > |
| > Also info whether there are any internal limits (like option length) . |
| > |
| > Some examples may be bit more annotated, also contain what is expected |
| > output. |
| |
| Syntax highligting. |
| |
| Document "*" in option names |
| Automated tests for examples? |
| (new) Comments inside code snippets? |
| (new) Table of all symbols |
| |
| |
| 6. (deferred) |
| Unicode support |
| |
| - unicode in argv/argc |
| - Unicode in config files not supported |
| ( |
| The difference between ASCII and unicode files is: |
| - big endian UTF16 starts with 2 bytes FE FF 9mandatory by Unicode |
| standard) - little endian UTF16 starts with FF FE |
| - UTF8 text starts with EF BB BF |
| |
| Pavel Vozenilek |
| ) |
| |
| 7. Config file improvements |
| |
| - should have "allow_unregistered" for config_file. |
| - (done) bool options in config file do not work. |
| - "#" inside strings, in config files (Pavel Vozenilek) |
| |
| 8. |
| Cmdline improvements |
| |
| - must be able to parse WinMain string |
| - support for response files |
| |
| 9. Other changes. |
| |
| - (outdated) get_value -> value (Beman) |
| - (done) is "argv" const in std, or not? Adjust docs if not. |
| - variables_map::count_if, find_if (Tanton Gibbs) |
| - Works with exceptions disabled. |
| - (outdated) disallow empty name for the 'parameter' function |
| - check for prefixes if 'allow_guessing' is on |
| - check for duplicate declaration of options. |
| - test additional parser |
| - Show default values in help output |
| - Adaptive field width |
| - Mandatory options (2 votes (second Jonathan Graehl)) |
| - (new) return vector from parsers by auto_ptr, not by value? |
| - (new) rename value_semantic into value_description |
| - (new) output for positional_options_description |
| - (new) variables_map should throw when value not found |
| - (important) decide where we check that the number of passed option |
| tokens is less than the allowed number. In parser or later? |
| - (important) what if the same option has different definitions? |
| - (new) We lost the ability to specify options_description instance |
| in call to 'store'. So now we can't store just subset of options. |
| Is it a problem? |
| - (new) Improve formatting of 'arg'. |
| - (new) revive real and regexp examples. |
| - (new) even more simpler syntax for assignent to var? |
| |
| |
| 10. Uncertain |
| - Function to get program name |
| - Order of 'description' and 'value'. |
| |
| |
| 11. (new) Look at all "TODO" comments. |
| (new) Check that all methods are documented. |
| |
| |
| 12. Deferred |
| |
| - storing value to boost::optional |
| - setting a flag when option is found |