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Features.md

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NClap Features

Command-line parsing

NClap supports parsing most commonly used .NET types out of the box:

  • Nearly all primitive .NET types (e.g. bool, char, string, byte, short, int, long, float, double, decimal, all of the unsigned variants, etc.)
  • Many other common .NET types (e.g. Guid, DateTime, TimeSpan, IPAddress, Uri, Regex)
  • Any .NET enum type (including extended support for enum types marked with [FlagsAttribute])
  • The nullable version of any supported value type listed above (e.g. int?)
  • A custom FileSystemPath type exported by NClap to simplify file-path parsing, validation, and completion
  • Any generic ICollection<T> over any supported type listed above (e.g. List<T>, LinkedList<T>, HashSet<T>, SortedSet<T>, KeyValuePair<T>, Tuple<>, Dictionary<TKey, TValue>)

And for any type not directly supported, it's easy to extend NClap to parse a custom type: you just need to implement a simple parsing interface (IStringParser) and a simple string formatting interface (IObjectFormatter). For bonus points, you can extend a string completion interface (IStringCompleter) and get custom type-specific tab completion when building an interactive shell that uses the type.

For all of these types, NClap supports:

  • Named arguments
  • Positional arguments
  • Optional arguments
  • Required arguments
  • Multiply-specified arguments
  • Arguments with default values
  • Auto-generating usage info help for argument sets
  • Attribute-driven argument validation (e.g. MustBeGreaterThanAttribute, MustMatchRegExAttribute, MustNotBeEmptyAttribute)
  • Custom argument validation (i.e. properties with custom get and set accessors)
  • Arguments parsed into fields or properties
  • Arguments parsed into public, internal, or private fields or properties

Interactive shells

NClap makes it easy to build an interactive shell and project actions into it as commands, with support for:

  • Commands with complex arguments (i.e. the full argument parsing support described above)
  • Type- and context-sensitive tab completion (supporting many types listed above)
  • Easy extension model for tab completion (i.e. just implement IStringCompleter)
  • Easily colorized output
  • Custom input/output
  • A custom partial implementation of readline
  • Auto-generated help command
  • Customizable keyboard bindings for input operations