Tue 2003-08-05 06:32, CHARLES ANGELICH (1:123/140) wrote to JASEN BETTS:

 CA>>> I haven't used getopt() for some time now but I have often
 CA>>> wondered what the reasons are that most methods of parsing
 CA>>> the command line want to use switch characters such as "/"
 CA>>> or "-"? 

 JB>> usually to separate switches (ie commands) from filenames
 JB>> or other literals 

 CA> With argc available I don't see the need for the switch chars.
 CA> Order of entry should be sufficient.

Among other things it allows for optional switches, eg.

  touch -t 030806 myfile

It's fairly obvious to anyone accustomed to command line switches will
realise 030806 is the parameter to -t.  On the other hand if you had to use

  touch t 030806 myfile

then you would need to always three arguments.  Plus it's not so obvious
that argv[1] is a switch and that argv[2] is the parameter to argv[2]. 
Someone unfamilar with the touch utility may think that 030806 is a
filename.

'/' is rarely used in UNIX as a switch character because it is a path delimeter.

The whole thing is a bit of a non-issue really...

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