[Melbourne-pm] Perl best practices: script actions based on a command line argument

[Daniel Pittman]

Mathew Robertson <mathew.robertson at netratings.com.au> writes:

>                  dns mx ...         # check MX details for a domain
>                  dns ns ...         # check NS details for a domain
>
>             So, what is the general consensus on the best way to do this -- what is
>             the nicest way to dispatch to the various command handlers based on a
>             command line argument?
>
>         Finding consensus might be a challenge... but I'd suggest using a
>         dispatch table.  This seems to be a pretty common suggestion for
>         similar problems on Perl Monks for example.
>
>     *nod*
>
>     In the end I turned up a CPAN module that deals with (most of) this for
>     me, nicely: App::Cmd.  Not packaged for Debian/Ubuntu yet, but it does a
>     reasonable job of encapsulating the design style -- including
>     auto-loading of the command modules, etc.
>
>     In general I like Toby's suggestion, but a dispatch table is more
>     secure.
>
>     Ah, well.  No simple consensus, which helps me feel better about having
>     to invent my own mechanism rather than using existing "best practice."
>
> Have you considered the programmable command-line completion available
> in Bash?

Your comments don't make a great deal of sense to me.  

Programmable completion in a shell (which I may not actually use)
doesn't make a difference, one way or another, to how I process the
command line arguments in a Perl program.

Er, as far as I can see.  Have I missed something?

Regards,
        Daniel
-- 
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