[Python-Dev] Re: Adding Optik to the standard library

[Greg Ward]

On 31 May 2002, Steven Lott said:
> The question of <was>Optik</was><is>options</is> having several
> reusable elements pushes my envelope.  If it's job is to parse
> command line arguments, how many different reusable elements can
> their really be?  Perhaps there are several candidate modules
> here.  It seems difficult to justify putting them all into a
> library.  The problem doesn't seem complex enough to justify a
> complex solution. 

I think I agree with everything you said.  There are only two important
classes in Optik: OptionParser and Option.  Together with one trivial
support class (OptionValue) and some exception classes, that is the
module -- the unit of reusability, in your terms.

For convenience while developing, I split Optik into three source files
-- optik/option_parser.py, optik/option.py, and optik/errors.py.
There's not that much code; about 1100 lines.  And it's all pretty
tightly related -- the OptionParser class is useless without Option, and
vice-versa.

If you just want to use the code, it doesn't much matter if optik (or
OptionParser) is a package with three sub-modules or a single file.  If
you just want to read the code, it's probably easier to have a single
file.  If you're hacking on it, it's probably easier to split the code
up.  I think Optik is now moving into that long, happy phase where it is
mostly read and rarely hacked on, so I think it's time to merge the
three separate source files into one.  I very much doubt that it's too
complex for this -- I have worked hard to keep it tightly focussed on
doing one thing well.

        Greg
-- 
Greg Ward - nerd                                        gward@python.net
http://starship.python.net/~gward/
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