Oliver Wilkerson

If you've ever had the need to make a C++ CLI application and just want to put something together quickly, you probably want to take in arguments from terminal. All right, but then you have to write all that out. I know it's trivial, but I hate writing that out every time. So here's a template to make your lives easier.

It uses boost libraries.

main.cpp

#include <string>
#include <boost/program_options.hpp>

using namespace std;
using namespace boost::program_options;

void print_help(options_description desc, string app_name) {
    cout << app_name << " [options]" << endl;
    cout << "\tList what the application does here." << endl;
    cout << "Options:" << endl;
    desc.print(cout);
    cout << endl << endl << "Example:" << endl;
    cout << "\t" << app_name << " sample command" << endl << endl;
}

int main (int argc, char * const argv[]) {
    //some docs first
    options_description desc;
    desc.add_options()
        ("help", "Shows this help message.")
        ("sample", value<string>(), "A sample thing.")
        ;

    //read the options
    variables_map vm_arg;
    store(parse_command_line(argc, argv, desc), vm_arg);
    notify(vm_arg);
    
    if (vm_arg.find("help") != vm_arg.end() || argc == 1) {
        print_help(desc, argv[0]);
    }

    //do your stuff here

    return 0;
}

Like I said, this guy uses boost so your Makefile will need to include the boost lib. Here's mine:

Makefile

CC = /usr/bin/gcc
LNK_OPTIONS = \
        -L/usr/lib \
        -L/usr/local/lib \
        -Llib \
        -lboost_program_options-mt 
        
DEBUG_OUTPUT = 1;

#ifeq ($(UNAME), Darwin)
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET_i386 = 10.6
MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET_x86_64 = 10.6
SDKROOT_i386 = /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6u.sdk
SDKROOT_x86_64 = /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.6u.sdk
CC = /usr/bin/g++
#endif

#
# INCLUDE directories
#
INCLUDE = -I. -I/usr/include -I/usr/local/include -Iinclude

#
# Build cli_template
#

cli_template: 
        rm -f ./main.o;
        make ./main.o 
    $(CC) $(INCLUDE) $(LNK_OPTIONS) \
        ./main.o \
        -o build/Debug/cli_template 

clean: 
        rm -f \
        ./main.o 

install:
        make cli_template;
        cp build/Debug/cli_template /usr/local/bin/cli_template

#
# Build the parts of cli_template
#

# Item # 1 -- main --
./main.o: main.cpp
    $(CC) $(CC_OPTIONS) main.cpp -c $(INCLUDE) -o ./main.o

If anyone has something they use that is cleaner, I'd love to see it. This just goes fast for me.

I know. There are tumblrs, blogspots, wordpress, etc. but I feel one is better served by creating something others already have -- if you have the chance. It gives you a chance to understand the problems that had to be solved by the creators of those other systems. Those lessons translate into other solutions for personal projects and jobs. Furthermore, when you have a problem with one of those third party systems in the future, you might just have a better understanding of what's causing it.

So just as a Jedi has to build a light saber to complete their training, I say you're not a web developer worth your salt until you've at least tried to build an MVC-type system from scratch and/or created your own blogging system rather than using a pre-built package.

Codey stuff will come soon.