title: Command line parameters, standard aproach to parse?
body: <p>I've been reading a bit about how programs handle command line parameters. But the information seems to be "incomplete", things I've read:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Options may have a preceding '-' or '/' sign if front of them. </li>
  <li>Options can have additional arguments (which go without a - sign)</li>
  <li>the option arguments follow the option directly, with or without a space.</li>
  <li>Options can be a single letter or a full word.</li>
  <li>optionscan be merged inside a single "option": -abc equals -a -b -c</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><a href="http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009604499/basedefs/xbd_chap12.html" rel="nofollow">(Source)</a></p>
  
  <p>Now I'm really wondering: What kind of options do you give a "-" sign and which not.
  Also the merging of options into 1 seems to be incompatible with full-word options? "-file" can be a full word, but it might also mean "-f", "-i", "-l", "-e", 4 different switches. Or even: "-f" with "ile" as option_argument.</p>
  
  <p>Am I understanding something wrong?</p>