[vorbis] Adding a --version option to vorbiscomment

Victoria E. Lease vlease at floofy-skirts.org
Wed Nov 7 09:39:09 PST 2001



[Jack Moffitt]
> Putting 'taint' and 'GPL' in the same sentence is also a sweeping
> statement.

Hmm... this is not at all what I was getting at. The idea that I
was trying to convey was that adding --version is certainly not
an option for all programs in the world, for a variety of
reasons. The listed two reasons were really just examples.

My command of English is just as fallible as any. :)

Anyway, so long as we're straying from the topic at-hand. the common
"fix" for getting software which depends on GNU-style getopt to
compile on non-Linux platforms is to include getopt.[hc] and
getopt1.c from glibc with the software, and have a configuration
mechanism compile and link them in where applicable. I assume you
know this. Not all authors understand the license implications of
such a fix, though. Of course, there are options: my_getopt, writing
your own, etc. I assume you know and understand such things, too,
being a key member of an organization which deals so intimately with
copyright, patent, and license issues. ;)

...however, not all users do. which is why I thought to list it as a
potential reason someone may not trivially use long options in their
program.

> There are bsd licensed getopts.  Adding a --version option does not
> require you to use the GPL.

Of course. I did not mean to imply that. Sorry if I did. :(

> And I believe teh sentiment is that all programs should have a way to
> query their version from the commandline if a commandline is available.

Oh, I'd certainly agree with that. Just as certainly, though, I
wouldn't say that "all programs in the world should support
--version". "-v" works perfectly well in many cases, spitting it out
with the usage text if such exists is fine for some cases, too...
there exist a range of options, all of which fit a variety of
situations.

Apologies for the distraction, I really did not mean to side-track
so. I just thought it bore mentioning that there exist reasons why
some programs may wish to not adopt that particular behavior...

Gomen'nasai...

-- 
   Victoria E. Lease <vlease at floofy-skirts.org>
C66F 5745 AE21 B21F 5326  FA12 DBC2 9245 9475 3F70

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