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54<H3><A NAME="SECTION0082113000000000000000"></A><A NAME="optparse-what-positional-arguments-for"></A>
55<BR>
566.21.1.3 What are positional arguments for?
57</H3>
58
59<P>
60Positional arguments are for those pieces of information that your
61program absolutely, positively requires to run.
62
63<P>
64A good user interface should have as few absolute requirements as
65possible. If your program requires 17 distinct pieces of information in
66order to run successfully, it doesn't much matter <em>how</em> you get that
67information from the user--most people will give up and walk away
68before they successfully run the program. This applies whether the user
69interface is a command-line, a configuration file, or a GUI: if you make
70that many demands on your users, most of them will simply give up.
71
72<P>
73In short, try to minimize the amount of information that users are
74absolutely required to supply--use sensible defaults whenever
75possible. Of course, you also want to make your programs reasonably
76flexible. That's what options are for. Again, it doesn't matter if
77they are entries in a config file, widgets in the ``Preferences'' dialog
78of a GUI, or command-line options--the more options you implement, the
79more flexible your program is, and the more complicated its
80implementation becomes. Too much flexibility has drawbacks as well, of
81course; too many options can overwhelm users and make your code much
82harder to maintain.
83
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