Pitch [stdlib]: Command Line Argument Parsing

[zienag (Alfred Zien)]

@allevato

As they're implemented today? No, but I don't agree with the premise either: I don't think replacing every Python script should be a goal—if Python is the right tool for the job for whatever reason, then use Python.

Of course, that is not the goal, it is just a thought experiment to determine "maturity" of proposed solution. And I don't have anything (almost :) ) against python, it just looks sad for me, that we have great language, that lacks some relatively easy to implement features to be a great for scripts/cli tools too. And, also, I think that swift-sh is a great tool, but argument parser would need to be included in almost every script.

@allevato

I love using Swift, but there are a lot of changes I'd want to make API-wise before I'd want to use it for concise scripting, especially around file or text manipulation.

Absolutely, and, as I said, it is better to get started than status-quo :)

@allevato

At the same time, "the state of SwiftPM today" and "include everything with the OS/toolchain" aren't the only two options available to us. If your goal is to make Swift scripting more viable without the overhead of downloading remote packages, maybe there's an approach that can be found somewhere in the middle.

Can't argue with that.

@allevato

"Part of the OS" isn't really an option since Swift is an open-source project and the Swift team doesn't control what goes into the OS, so the closest you can get without being "part of stdlib" is "part of the toolchain". That can certainly be debated though, and there have been various discussions in the past on the forum about non-standard-library libraries as part of the toolchain.

That is totally true. And not so long ago, demangle function proposal faced a similar issue – [Returned for revision] SE-0262: Demangle function. I hope that some solution will be found in near future :)