Option Parser for Eiffel

Bernd Schoeller has just released a very nice library for parsing command line options in Eiffel. It makes it easy to add full-featured command line parsing to any Eiffel application, without the need to use configuration files or run a preprocessor.

Object Parser for Eiffel is simple to use yet powerful, and is based on modern conventions for command-line options.

Features include:

• Different types of options: flags, strings, integers, booleans ...
• Long (--make-love) and short (-l) options are supported.
• Short form can be joined (-abc instead of -a -b -c), assuming that every one but the last is a flag (does not require an argument).
• Arguments to the short form can be added with or without space (-ltoday or -l today).
• Arguments to the long form can be added with '=' or with a space (--make-love=today or --make-love today).
• Option termination introduced by '--'.
• Usage instructions and a help text will be generated automatically from the options.
• An agent can be called every time a certain option is found.
• Good default values, minimal code is required for standard applications.

Option Parser is released under the Eiffel Forum License 2.0. It has been developed using EiffelStudio 5.6 but with portability in mind, and requires Gobo 3.4.

Links:

• Project home page and downloads
• README file
• Eiffel Software Directory entry