A not quite stylish proposal for command line processing

How about
(defun *argv++ nil (pop command-line-args-left))
?

It would allow to write

emacs --eval '(ediff-files (*argv++) (*argv++))'
"$FILE1" "$FILE2"

instead of the much more tedious explicit variant.  Note
that

emacs --eval "(ediff-files "$FILE1"
"$FILE2")"

is _not_ equivalent since it requires $FILE1 to be properly
quoted for
appearing inside of a Lisp string.

Somewhat more Lispish would be
(defvaralias 'argv 'command-line-args-left)
which would at least permit
emacs --eval '(ediff-files (pop argv) (pop argv))'
"$FILE1" "$FILE2"

And it is more likely to be found by programmers using
"apropos".  And
is actually only one character longer than the *argv++
cuteness.

Comments?

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum


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    It would allow to write

    emacs --eval '(ediff-files (*argv++) (*argv++))'
"$FILE1" "$FILE2"

It is a cute hack, but does anyone really want to use this?


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Richard Stallman wrote:
>     It would allow to write
> 
>     emacs --eval '(ediff-files (*argv++) (*argv++))'
"$FILE1" "$FILE2"
> 
> It is a cute hack, but does anyone really want to use
this?


Maybe on w32, but I prefer using emacsclient for this. The
command file 
below handles this:

c:uediff.CMD
****** Contents: *******
rem
Put this file (ediff.cmd) in your PATH.
rem
(Created by Setup Helper at Tue Apr 03 20:48:56 2007)
rem
-----------------------------
rem
Starts Emacs ediff (through gnuserv) from command line.
rem
Takes the two file to compare as parameters.
setlocal
set
f1=%1
set
f2=%2
set
f1=%f1:=/%
set
f2=%f2:=/%
set
emacs_cd=%CD:=/%
set
emacs_client="c:emacsp70403emacsbinemacsclient.e
xe"
%emacs_client% -n
%emacs_client% -e "(setq default-directory
"%emacs_cd%")"
%emacs_client% -n  -e "(ediff-files
"%f1%" "%f2%")"


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Richard Stallman <rmsgnu.org> writes:

>     It would allow to write
>
>     emacs --eval '(ediff-files (*argv++) (*argv++))'
"$FILE1" "$FILE2"
>
> It is a cute hack, but does anyone really want to use
this?

The problem is that the equivalent (pop
command-line-args-left) is the
only way to pass strings from the shell or elsewhere without
having to
requote them as Lisp strings.  (*argv++) might be quite over
the top,
but at least (pop argv) would still be quite concise, much
more
Lispish, and it might make it easier for people to actually
find the
respective variable.

On a different tack, currently emacsclient behaves different
when
parsing --eval and command line arguments and does not
support
command-line-args-left.  I am currently fixing this in
server.el.
Making emacsclient mimic the normal Emacs commandline more
closely
makes it easier to substitute one for the other.

It may be somewhat pointless in checking this in before the
multi-tty
merge, but at least I hope to be able to provide a patch
for
discussion.

-- 
David Kastrup


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"Lennart Borgman (gmail)" <lennart.borgmangmail.com> writes:

> Richard Stallman wrote:
>>     It would allow to write
>>
>>     emacs --eval '(ediff-files (*argv++)
(*argv++))' "$FILE1" "$FILE2"
>>
>> It is a cute hack, but does anyone really want to
use this?
>
>
> Maybe on w32, but I prefer using emacsclient for this.

emacsclient does not help here.  And the below assumes that
you can
flip backslashes without changing their meaning.  Not likely
to be
true for regexps or similar.  Getting them and other strings
and
special characters unmolested into Emacs using portable
shell scripts
is actually a royal nuisance without using
command-line-args-left.

> The command file below handles this:
>
> c:uediff.CMD
> ****** Contents: *******
> rem Put this file (ediff.cmd) in your PATH.
> rem (Created by Setup Helper at Tue Apr 03 20:48:56
2007)
> rem -----------------------------
> rem Starts Emacs ediff (through gnuserv) from command
line.
> rem Takes the two file to compare as parameters.
> setlocal
> set f1=%1
> set f2=%2
> set f1=%f1:=/%
> set f2=%f2:=/%
> set emacs_cd=%CD:=/%
> set
emacs_client="c:emacsp70403emacsbinemacsclient.e
xe"
> %emacs_client% -n
> %emacs_client% -e "(setq default-directory
"%emacs_cd%")"
> %emacs_client% -n  -e "(ediff-files
"%f1%" "%f2%")"

-- 
David Kastrup


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    The problem is that the equivalent (pop
command-line-args-left) is the
    only way to pass strings from the shell or elsewhere
without having to
    requote them as Lisp strings.  (*argv++) might be quite
over the top,
    but at least (pop argv) would still be quite concise,
much more
    Lispish, and it might make it easier for people to
actually find the
    respective variable.

It is a fine method of doing this.  If people really want to
do this,
then let's install some such thing.

However, I am not sure that the name `argv' is useful now
that even most hackers are not C programmers.  Does any
other
language use the name `argv'?


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Richard Stallman <rmsgnu.org> writes:

>     The problem is that the equivalent (pop
command-line-args-left) is the
>     only way to pass strings from the shell or
elsewhere without having to
>     requote them as Lisp strings.  (*argv++) might be
quite over the top,
>     but at least (pop argv) would still be quite
concise, much more
>     Lispish, and it might make it easier for people to
actually find the
>     respective variable.
>
> It is a fine method of doing this.  If people really
want to do this,
> then let's install some such thing.
>
> However, I am not sure that the name `argv' is useful
now
> that even most hackers are not C programmers.  Does any
other
> language use the name `argv'?

Perl has ARGV, awk has ARGV, Python has sys.argv, bash has
$
(well,
you can't always win), Ruby has ARGV, lua has arg, Java has
args[]...

The v in argv has not survived into all script languages
(though quite
better than argc), but it makes the variable name safer
against
accidental reuse in our flat Lisp namespace.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum


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    Perl has ARGV, awk has ARGV, Python has sys.argv,
bash has $ (well,
    you can't always win), Ruby has ARGV, lua has arg, Java
has args[]...

Ok, we can have argv too.


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