Re: --help option: sys.exit or return?

On 20 October 2004, [email protected] said:
> I don't understand the OP's problem or what the use case is.
[...]
> If you want to call your foofunc from within the interpreter, you just type that in yourself, 
> don't you? Why bother going through optik?

I assume that his point was that for learning/experimenting/playing
around, an interactive interpreter session is ideal.  I do that all the
time when learning a new module.  I don't do that with Optik, since I
know its capabilities and syntax pretty well.  ;-)  But I don't like
this:

  $ python            # hmmm, this optik thing looks neat, let's play...
  [...]
  >>> from optik import *
  >>> parser = OptionParser()
  >>> parser.parse_args(["--help"])
  usage:  [options]

  options:
    -h, --help  show this help message and exit
  $                    # aiee, dumped out of Python and back to the shell!

I had (very) slight misgivings about making Optik sys.exit() when it
does, and now I understand why.  Well, I still don't regret it --
although it violates a basic rule of writing libraries, this is a
library for "doing the right thing" in command-line processing, and that
means exit in certain ways at certain times.

        Greg
-- 
Greg Ward <[email protected]>                         http://www.gerg.ca/
Never put off till tomorrow what you can put off till the day after tomorrow.


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