I have an option-parsing module at http://home.uchicago.edu/~wolfson/Python/arglist.py ; from reading Optik's docs it isn't as featureful but it does answer the list given in http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2002-February/019937.html. I haven't used Optik, but my module seems simpler to use. It supports arbitrary callbacks, can be strongly typed (insofar as passing, eg the int function as a callback will generate an error if the value isn't int-able), recognizes the identity of short and long forms, and has a reasonable range of actions--if an option has no argument, by default it records if it appeared and how often; if it does, it can append multiple occurences to a list or keep only the last. Callbacks aren't as flexible as Optik's (they are functions of one argument) but with nested scopes that probably wouldn't be terribly problematic. I'm currently in the process of re-writing arglist.py in my spare time since the code is rather messy, so if it's seen as a contender I could add features. -- BTR BEN WOLFSON HAS RUINED ROCK MUSIC FOR A GENERATION -- Crgre Jvyyneq