On Tue, 30 Mar 2004 21:35:21 -0700 Bryan Harris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Please keep in mind that doing this breaks the de facto Unix > > standard for filters. A simply command which is a filter (e.g takes > > input from STDIN and sends output to STDOUT) is written without any > > consideration whether the input is a terminal, pipe, socket or > > otherwise. This makes it very simple to use the command in a > > pipeline or standalone from the terminal. > Strangely, I find that we almost always want our scripts to act this > way. If any files or data is passed to the script, then it uses it. > Otherwise, it prints usage instructions (since we'd rather not have > man pages for scripts, and I don't know how to build them anyway). > > I mention this because I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on this > methodology. It really comes down to personal taste and what your users expect. My usual convention for scripts is to use the '-h' or the '--help' flag to display short help information. It is any easy and standard way to display help info. I find the ability of a script to also accept input from a terminal is a useful learning tool and also lets a user easily see how a simple filter works. It can be annoying to run a command and then have it seemingly do nothing as it waits for user input. In those cases, for complex scripts I have set up prompting when input is from a terminal. I can certainly see the rationale for your methodology. If you are comfortable with it and your users are comfortable with it, I would stick to it. > By the way, what's a socket? Usually, a network protocol end-point which for most I/O purposes looks like a file handle. Instead of reading or writing from a file, the program reads or writes a socket which is typically connected to another program via a network protocol which is either local or remote. See perldoc -f socket. -- Smoot Carl-Mitchell Systems/Network Architect email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cell: +1 602 421 9005 home: +1 480 922 7313 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://learn.perl.org/> <http://learn.perl.org/first-response>
