* Phil Pennock <phil.penn...@globnix.org> [2006-05-26 17:55]: > If a program spews a short synopsis to stderr, and refers to > the real help option, then exits non-zero, for all > unimplemented options, whilst producing --help/whatever to > stdout exiting zero, you have something which makes it clear > that "this option isn't in use, see over there for help" and is > much more amenable to later implementing Real Functionality > under that option letter.
There is no reason not to produce a short synopsis of the far most common options along with that message, no? And heck, you could even spew the entire help message to stderr for `-h`, followed by "unrecognized option, use <whatever>" and a non-zero exit code, if you want to keep it free for later use. Regards, -- Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>
