https://www.na-mic.org/w/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=CommandLineParsingCommandLineParsing - Revision history2026-04-08T23:18:56ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.33.0https://www.na-mic.org/w/index.php?title=CommandLineParsing&diff=3792&oldid=prevAndy: Update from Wiki2006-12-18T13:29:44Z<p>Update from Wiki</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>=== Abstract ===<br />
<br />
The purpose of this proposal is to facilitate a "run-everywhere" philosophy for algorithm writers. If NAMIC adopts a standard for algorithm "self-description" that is followed when command line executables are written, Slicer, the grid, clusters, etc... should be able to use the executables directly in their environment.<br />
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=== Proposal ===<br />
<br />
If we adopt a standard XML description of the parameters to the algorithm, any application should be able to parse the XML and construct a GUI suitable for interaction with the software.<br />
<br />
Here is the an example of the proposed XML format, with suitable comments.<br />
<br />
<br />
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><br />
<executable class="register"><br />
<name>Register3d</name><br />
<version>1.0</version><br />
<description>This registers and resamples two images</description><br />
<br />
<parameters><br />
<!-- a switch is a boolean flag, likely a checkbox.<br />
on the command line, name is the long version, flag is the<br />
one character version of the argument<br />
--><br />
<switch name="interpolate" flag="i" default="true" required="false"><br />
<description></description><br />
</switch><br />
<br />
<!-- a value takes a single argument, may be required to be present<br />
and has a type. In this case, the "metric" value is constrained to be<br />
one of the listed options below. This should be represented by a<br />
group of radio buttons or drop down menu.<br />
--><br />
<value name="metric" flag="m" default="mattes" required="false" type="string"><br />
<description></description><br />
<constraints><br />
<list><br />
<constraint>mattes</constraint><br />
<constraint>mi</constraint><br />
<constraint>normalizedcorrelation</constraint><br />
</list><br />
</constraints><br />
</value><br />
<br />
<!-- an integer value with a range --><br />
<value name="threshold" flag="t" type="integer"><br />
<constraints><br />
<range minimum="0" maximum="100"/><br />
</constraints><br />
</value><br />
<br />
<!-- a value argument that allow several instances of the argument to be specified.<br />
The values are appended to each other and returned in a vector.<br />
In the GUI, this could be a list of numbers in a string, or a<br />
dynamic list constructed by the user.<br />
--><br />
<value name="iterations" flag="e" type="iteration" allowrepeats="true"><br />
<constraints><br />
<range minimum="1"/><br />
</constraints><br />
</value><br />
<br />
<!-- xor specifies that only one of it's contained parameters<br />
be specified. In this case, we want a file or url, but not<br />
both --><br />
<xor><br />
<value name="file" flag="f" type="filename"/><br />
<value name="url" flag="u"/><br />
</xor><br />
<br />
<!-- unlabeledvalue do not have a flag associated with them, and are positional.<br />
In this case, we are looking for 3 filenames.<br />
--><br />
<unlabeledvalue name="fixedimage" position="0" type="filename"/><br />
<unlabeledvalue name="movingimage" position="1" type="filename"/><br />
<unlabeledvalue name="outputimage" position="2" type="filename"/><br />
</parameters><br />
</executable><br />
<br />
=== Related Work ===<br />
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==== MetaCommand ====<br />
<br />
Julien Jomier and Stephen Aylward have added support for command line parsing to itk with the MetaCommand class (Utilities/MetaIO/metaCommand.{h,cxx}). It supports a -xml flag to output args in an xml syntax.<br />
<br />
==== Qt Designer XML Format ====<br />
<br />
Qt has an xml syntax for representing their GUI layouts. It's unclear if this tool could be used to design layouts used by other GUI packages.<br />
<br />
==== ParaView Server ====<br />
<br />
ParaView has a syntax to extend the GUI described [http://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView:Extend on their wiki here].<br />
<br />
==== LONI Pipeline ====<br />
<br />
Parameters to executables are described in an XML file as part of the process of wrapping them for the pipeline.</div>Andy