Feature "wish": the help command line argument

[Martin Vahi]

I know that the expression is "feature request", but that seems a bit too imperative for me, at least right now it seems so. The wish is that

parasail_main --help
parasail_main -h
parasail_main -?

gave some EBNF style description of the command line arguments. The current output looks like:

mmmv_applications_set_01@hoidla-01:~/applications/ParaSail/v_8_4_1/parasail_release_8_4/build/bin$ ./parasail_main --help
ParaSail Interpreter and Virtual Machine Revision: 8.4
Copyright (C) 2011-2019, AdaCore, New York NY, USA
This program is provided "as is" with no warranty.
Report problems at http://groups.google.com/group/parasail-programming-language

Fatal error: Flag --help not understood.
---- All done ----

mmmv_applications_set_01@hoidla-01:~/applications/ParaSail/v_8_4_1/parasail_release_8_4/build/bin$ ./parasail_main -?
ParaSail Interpreter and Virtual Machine Revision: 8.4
Copyright (C) 2011-2019, AdaCore, New York NY, USA
This program is provided "as is" with no warranty.
Report problems at http://groups.google.com/group/parasail-programming-language

Fatal error: Flag -? not understood.
---- All done ----

mmmv_applications_set_01@hoidla-01:~/applications/ParaSail/v_8_4_1/parasail_release_8_4/build/bin$ ./parasail_main -h
ParaSail Interpreter and Virtual Machine Revision: 8.4
Copyright (C) 2011-2019, AdaCore, New York NY, USA
This program is provided "as is" with no warranty.
Report problems at http://groups.google.com/group/parasail-programming-language

Fatal error: Flag -h not understood.
---- All done ----

mmmv_applications_set_01@hoidla-01:~/applications/ParaSail/v_8_4_1/parasail_release_8_4/build/bin$ ./parasail_main help
ParaSail Interpreter and Virtual Machine Revision: 8.4
Copyright (C) 2011-2019, AdaCore, New York NY, USA
This program is provided "as is" with no warranty.
Report problems at http://groups.google.com/group/parasail-programming-language

Parsing help
Error: Cannot open help
Error: Cannot open help

 1 total syntax errors found
---- All done ----

mmmv_applications_set_01@hoidla-01:~/applications/ParaSail/v_8_4_1/parasail_release_8_4/build/bin$

 Obviosuly it's nothing critical, just a matter of expectation. Thank You.

[Tucker Taft]

bin/interp.csh and bin/pslc.csh both give some amount of "help" when invoked without parameters.  We no longer encourage users to directly invoke parasail_main, but perhaps that is exactly what the "help" command could say... ;-)

More seriously, we will see what we can do about giving some help.

-Tuck

On Wed, Nov 13, 2019 at 5:48 AM Martin Vahi <sininet...@gmail.com> wrote:

I know that the expression is "feature request", but that seems a bit too imperative for me, at least right now it seems so. The wish is that

parasail_main --help
parasail_main -h
parasail_main -?

gave some EBNF style description of the command line arguments. The current output looks like:

...