New chapter: command line options

content/books/things-i-learnt/_index.md

@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ template = "section-contentless.html"
 		* [If Your Data Has a Schema, Use a Structure](use-structures)
 		* [Don't Mess With Things Outside Your Project](outside-project)
 		* [Resist The Temptation Of Easy](resist-easy)
+		* [Command Line Options Are Weird, But Helpful](command-line-options)
 		* [Start Stupid](start-stupid)
 		* [Always Use Timezones With Your Dates](use-timezones)
 		* [Always Use UTF-8 For Your Strings](use-utf8)

content/books/things-i-learnt/command-line-options/index.md

@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
++++
+title = "Things I Learnt The Hard Way - Command Line Options Are Weird, But Helpful"
+date = 2019-07-15
+
+[taxonomies]
+tags = ["en-au", "books", "things i learnt", "configuration", "command line options", "cli"]
++++
+
+In this day and age, when everything has a graphical interface, does it still
+makes sense to add command line options to your application? In fact, it does.
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+When I mentioned the configuration file, you may have thought about using
+adding a default path for it and using the same file over and over.
+
+Well, that's not wrong, but what if you want to use a different configuration?
+Would you keep moving the original configuration file to another place, moving
+your configuration back and keep this back and forth? Keep both versions and
+just use a [symbolic link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link) with
+the configuration filename pointing to the one you want?
+
+Why not add a command line option in which the user can select which
+configuration file should be loaded?
+
+This would make their life _and yours_ easy.
+
+Also, be aware that, today, there may be libraries to handle command line in
+every language, which will help you build a good command line interface, along
+with standardizing it to have the same interface as other applications.
+
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/resist-easy", prev_chapter_title="Resist The Temptation Of Easy", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/start-stupid", next_chapter_title="Start Stupid") }}

content/books/things-i-learnt/resist-easy/index.md

@@ -28,4 +28,4 @@ These days, IDEs can autocomplete almost everything, from function names to
 even how to name your variables. But using the autocomplete is not always a
 good solution. Finding better names is.
 
-{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/outside-project", prev_chapter_title="Don't Mess With Things Outside Your Project", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/start-stupid", next_chapter_title="Start Stupid") }}
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/outside-project", prev_chapter_title="Don't Mess With Things Outside Your Project", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/command-line-options", next_chapter_title="Command Line options Are Weird, But Helpful") }}

content/books/things-i-learnt/start-stupid/index.md

@@ -31,4 +31,4 @@ what your IDE is doing.
 
 And when you grasp that, you'll be able to use _any_ IDE.
 
-{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/resist-easy", prev_chapter_title="Resist The Temptation Of Easy", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/use-timezones", next_chapter_title="Always Use Timezones With Your Dates") }}
+{{ chapters(prev_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/command-line-options", prev_chapter_title="Command Line Options Are Weird, But Helpful", next_chapter_link="/books/things-i-learnt/use-timezones", next_chapter_title="Always Use Timezones With Your Dates") }}