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that option is required

Huh?

         

LifeinAsia

4:53 pm on Sep 14, 2007 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



We just bought some data that came with a decryption utility. The instructions say to run the program from the command prompt and listed several options to tack on.

So we tried running it with the parameters we needed and it just spat out the help file that says to run the program from a command prompt and lists the options. No error message, no decrypted file created, no indication that the program threa an error. Tried again with the level of debugging at full- still got the same.

Finally got an e-mail back from their tech support that basically said we didn't specify the "l" option, which must be included.

Perhaps I'm being way too anal about this, but I have several problems with this:
1) If a parameter is required, don't call it an "option" (which implies that it is OPTIONAL)
2) If a parameter is required, specify in the description of parameters that it's required.
3) When a required parameter isn't passed, return an error (or at least a debugging message) that a required parameter wasn't supplied. And go the half step further and specify WHICH required parameter wasn't supplied!

vincevincevince

4:57 pm on Sep 14, 2007 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



If the l flag is always required... why can't they hardcode it and assume it always to be there?

Marshall

4:59 pm on Sep 14, 2007 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Vince,

That makes too much sense :)

Marshall

LifeinAsia

5:03 pm on Sep 14, 2007 (gmt 0)

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The l flag is followed by the file name for an output file. Again, neither of which was specified as being required.

buckworks

5:12 pm on Sep 14, 2007 (gmt 0)

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This is why a good technical writer can be worth more than gold.