[PD] should 'flags' always come first?

[IOhannes m zmölnig]

On 2/27/22 10:05, Alexandre Torres Porres wrote:
> Em dom., 27 de fev. de 2022 às 05:26, IOhannes m zmölnig <zmoelnig at iem.at>
> escreveu:
> 
> Many objects in Pd are coded in a way to reject creation arguments in the
> wrong order. The bug would be that it allows it.
that's typically not how it works. see Postel's law.


flags are just a general expression of "named arguments" (where you 
specify the meaning of a value along with the value; which is useful if 
you have many and/or non-mandatory arguments),


in general, flags are most useful for cmdline applications.
so i think we should check how flags are andled there.


 > - They start with "-".

in *general* i think it is safe to say that flags start with some common 
prefix. the actual prefix may vary based on the ecosystem, with *plenty* 
of exceptions.
- on Windows, cmdline flags often start with "/"
- GNU suggests to use "--" for long-name flags (e.g. "--verbose") and 
"-" for short-name (single-character) flags (e.g. "-v")
- single dash is common as well (e.g. "-flags")

Pd has mostly adopted single-dash flags, both for cmdline args and for 
arguments.
that doesn't mean that other suffixes (e.g. '@') are "bugs". they are 
just uncommon.


- They're always optional

i don't think so.
i know programs that have obligatory flags (though they are uncommon; 
and i can't remember the name of one right now; but i *know* that i know 
some such programs)


- They come before "actual" arguments.

what do you mean by "actual arguments"?
I've never heard of anything like that. i guess you mean arguments that 
are not "flags" (named arguments), but what is typically called 
"positional arguments" (as their semantic is encoded in the position: 
the 1st argument means something else as the 2nd arg).




so to conclude: i think you are overformalizing here, based on some 
assumptions that do not hold.


in general, a rule for flags could be: is the meaing of an argument-list 
ambiguous or not.
if it allows to specify ambiguous arguments, then there's a bug.
if not, then there's none.

fgdy
IOhannes


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