From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2005-11-08T12:07:11+09:00
Subject: Re: CommandLine-0.7.10

Jim Freeze wrote:

> >  * I want to write an application that inherits a different class.  Can
> > I still use this library?
>
> Good question. Can you give me an example.

Say I have a company-specific application class (which I don't, but
let's pretend) called AcmeApp, which all applications are to inherit.
Say I also want to use your library.  I'd like to see the option
parsing be independent of the application.  Perhaps something like
this:

  class AppOptions < CommandLine::OptionParser
    author "Gavin Sinclair"
    description "blah blah blah"
    options :help, :debug
    option :names => %w(--remove -R), # ...
    expected_args :file
  end

  class App < AcmeApp
    def App.run(args)
      options = AppOptions.parse(args)
      if options.debug
        ...
      elsif options.remove
        ...
      end
    end
  end

  App.run(ARGV)

> When I created this there was much debate over whether
> to make this a module or a class. IIRC, class was used
> becuase it was thought that any mixed in functionality
> should really go in its own class to have SOI. The app
> class is really just to handle the interface with the user.
> So, a standard app would look like so:
>
>   class MyApp < CommandLine::Application
>     def initialize
>     end
>     def main
>       # keep SOI
>       MyBigWorkingClass.new(@option_data)
>     end
>   end

Oh I see...

A few small applications I'm working have a common base class.  I'll
see if I can rearrange the code or otherwise get it working with the
CommandLine library.  Otherwise I might have some more specific
suggestions.

Cheers,
Gavin