From: Tom Pollard <tomp@...>
Date: 2007-03-08T07:10:07+09:00
Subject: Adding descriptive text to OptionParser output

Hi,

I'd like to add a paragraph of text to my usage message, describing  
the non-option arguments accepted by my script.  I don't see any way  
to do that in the OptionParser api; have I missed something?  The  
closest thing I see is the separator() method, but it appears to  
expect only a single line of text. I tried using

    opts = OptionParser.new do |opts|
       opts.banner = "Usage: #$0 [options] [terms]"
       opts.separator "Options:"
       opts.on( ... )

       opts.separator <<-EOF
       My lucid expository text here,
       complete with examples
       and clever insights.
       EOF
    end

...hoping this would produce a paragraph that looked like

My lucid expository text here,
complete with examples
and clever insights.

But the final paragraph was interspersed with blank lines, and looked
like this

       My lucid expository text here,

       complete with examples

       and clever insights.

Is this possible with OptionParser?

Thanks,

Tom