VistaIOReportUsage(3)

💅 VistaIOReportUsage(3) — the Library Functions Manual, but make it cute

okay bestie, so this is VistaIOReportUsage(3) from the Library Functions Manual, and it's literally the page that teaches your program how to ✨explain itself✨ to whoever's typing at it. Two functions, one very valid mission: tell the user what they're allowed to type. Let's get into it 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

VistaIOReportUsage, VistaIOReportValidOptions — report valid command line arguments

Like, they report the valid options. It's giving helpful. It's giving customer service. Periodt. 💖

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <vistaio.h>

void VistaIOReportUsage (program, noptions, options, other_args)
       VistaIOStringConst program, other_args;
       int noptions;
       VistaIOOptionDescRec options[noptions];

void VistaIOReportValidOptions (noptions, options)
       int noptions;
       VistaIOOptionDescRec options[noptions];

copy that #include exactly bestie, don't freestyle it 😭

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🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• program — the program's name, fr fr. Usually you just pass argv[0] and call it a day.
• noptions — how many entries are chillin' in that table of option descriptors.
• options — the actual location of the table of option descriptors. Like, the whole table.
• other_args — this one's a maybe. You can hand it a string describing any options your program accepts that AREN'T in the options table… or you can just pass NULL and let it be. Your call, main character. 🦋

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

So VistaIOReportUsage prints info about how to use a program — straight to the standard error stream, no cap. First thing it does is print a line shaped like this:

Usage: program <options> other_args, where <options> includes:

The program argument fills in the program part of that line, and the other_args argument fills in the other_args part. And if your program accepts literally no options besides the ones described in the options table? Then other_args should be NULL. Simple as that. 🙈

Then VistaIOReportUsage calls VistaIOReportValidOptions to print a lil summary of all the options described by noptions and options. Iconic teamwork, honestly.

Now VistaIOReportValidOptions — she's the one who prints a description of each option in a table of option descriptors. This description exists to advise a program user (that's the whole point, bestie). It tells you:

• what keyword signals the option's presence in the command line
• whether it's optional
• how many values have to follow it
• what type those values should be
• what keywords may be used as values for the option
• what default value(s) the option has

It'll also include any ``blurb'' string of help information it finds hanging out in the option's table entry. And yes — all of this goes to the standard error stream too. 🌈

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

VistaIOParseCommand(3), VistaIOReportBadArgs(3), VistaIOoption(3)

go read those next, iykyk 💅

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Art Pope <pope@cs.ubc.ca>

Adaption to vistaio: Gert Wollny <gw.fossdev@gmail.com>

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and that's the whole vibe check ✅ — this was VistaIO Version 1.2.14, dated 24 April 1993, and yes we're still stanning a manual page older than most of the internet. nostalgic AND useful, we love to see it 💖🎀🦋