Program command line args and program return value?

[Steve Litt]

Hi all,

I've been beating myself crazy exploring command line arguments and return
values in Harbour. I'm used to this in C:

=====================================
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
int i;
for (i=0; i < argc; i++)
printf("%s\n", argv[i]);
return(17);
}
=====================================

I wasn't so successful in Clipper. No matter what I put as the args to main, I
had to predeclare at least the maximum number of args expected, and later
convert that to an array. And for the life of me, I can't find a way to return
a non-zero such that Bash's $? variable shows anything but 0. Here's the code
I wrote:

===================================
function Main(arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5)
LOCAL arg
LOCAL argc := 0
LOCAL argv := {arg1, arg2, arg3, arg4, arg5}
? "Arguments follow ..."
FOR EACH arg IN argv
if arg = Nil
EXIT
ENDIF
argc++
? "Argument ", argc, "=", arg
NEXT
? "No more arguments."
? "There were ", argc, " arguments total."
RETURN 17 //Doesnt work, always 0
===================================

Here's the result:

=====================================
slitt@mydesk:~/hb_ex$ hbrun args.prg one two three

Arguments follow ...
Argument 1 = one
Argument 2 = two
Argument 3 = three
No more arguments.
There were 3 arguments total.
slitt@mydesk:~/hb_ex$ echo $?
0
slitt@mydesk:~/hb_ex$
=====================================

Kludge city! There's got to be a better way, and the return statement doesn't
influence the executable's $?. What am I missing?

Thanks

SteveT

Steve Litt
Recession Relief Package
http://www.recession-relief.US
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt

[do...@people.net.au]

Hi Steve

Its actually easy but you have hit on Harbour's one real shortcoming - lack of documentation.  I have actually made a small start on documenting the API and making a better version of xhb-diff.txt which explains the differences between Harbour and xHarbour (the two forks).

Back to your question

simply declare as follows:

PROCEDURE Main(...)

or presumably FUNCTION Main(...).  I don't actually know why I used PROCEDURE in the pices of code I looked at.

Then to access them in the manner you are talking about you can do something like:

  arr_Parameters := HB_AParams()
  int_ParamCount := LEN( arr_Parameters )

  IF int_ParamCount > 0
    FOR int_LoopCounter = 1 TO int_ParamCount
      CheckParameter( arr_Parameters[int_LoopCounter] )
    NEXT
  ENDIF

Actually this is documented - but not where you might expect it but in xhb-diff.txt (which should have come along with the Harbour source).

I will try to attach my improved (hopefully) but not yet finished pdf version.

Will send more re GTK+ interface

Hope above helps

Regards
Doug





On Sat 11/09/10 22:49 , Steve Litt sl...@troubleshooters.com sent:

Hi all,

I've been beating myself crazy exploring command line arguments and return
values in Harbour. I'm used to this in C:

=====================================
#include

http://www.recession-relief.US">http://www.recession-relief.US
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt">http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt