Hi everyone, I did not find a quick and simple com...

# feed

[Lionel Briand]

Hi everyone, I did not find a quick and simple command line argument parser. I've taken the gnu argument syntax and made one. Here is my take on it fitting in a single function: https://gist.github.com/L-Briand/15ddf5787ba8e78f842b3de90c3bf10c

[Daniel Pitts]

Not bad. I would suggest a change to the callback structure.

class Argument(val name: String?, getValue: ()->String?) {
   val value by lazy { getValue() }
}

and have the callback: be Argument.() -> Unit

That way just makes the usage a little cleaner:

gnuParse(args) {
   when (name) {
       "n", "name" -> name = value ?: "default"
       "e", "enable" -> bar = true   
   }
}

[Lionel Briand]

I like the idea for simple one-on-one argument's value. However, for multi element argument like --input file1 file2 I think getValue is more correct.

[Daniel Pitts]

Hmm, that's true, but how would the client code know how many times to call getValue?

[Lionel Briand]

getValue returns null if it encounter a value starting with a hyphen (in args) or reach the end of the args elements.

[Daniel Pitts]

Ah. In that case, you could have a values sequence instead or along side.

[Daniel Pitts]

Anyway, just a thought.

[Endre Deak]

how about Clikt? it's a bit more than just plain parsing, but it has great functionality and quite easy to use

[darkmoon_uk]

+1 for Clikt I'm currently working with it to build a command line client to complement a graphical client in my project; it's well thought-out and easy to use.

[Adam Brown]

just curious, did you find org.jetbrains.kotlinx:kotlinx-cli to not fit your needs?

[darkmoon_uk]

No, I didn't find that - only because I wasn't aware of its existence.

[darkmoon_uk]

Will check it out - thanks!

[Adam Brown]

ive been using it and liking it, however I just noticed that it's apparently abandoned now 👀

[Adam Brown]

https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx-cli

[Adam Brown]

that too bad, it was pretty nice to work with!

[darkmoon_uk]

Ah, ok... try clikt; 'official' is always nice, but there's only so much they can support I guess.

[darkmoon_uk]

I know clikt has grown popular, so JB may have consciously decided to defer to that and place their efforts elsewhere.

[Adam Brown]

ya

[mikehearn]

If you're targeting the JVM then PicoCLI is excellent.