--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/python/dictarg.py	Thu Oct 15 11:41:26 2009 -0400
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+
+import sys
+
+def dictarg(adict, argv=sys.argv[1:]):
+
+    shopts = {}
+    
+    # build list of keys
+    for i in adict.keys():
+        for j in i:
+            s = str(j)
+            if len(s) == 1:
+                if shopts.has_key(s):
+                    continue
+                shopts[s] = i
+                break
+        else:
+            print >> sys.stderr, "dictarg: couldn't generate key for '%s'" % i
+            sys.exit(1)
+
+    optstring = "?"
+    for i in shopts.keys():
+        optstring += i + ':' # all these options should have arguments
+    
+    # look for command line args
+    import getopt
+
+    opts, args = getopt.getopt(argv, optstring)
+
+    if ('-?', '') in opts:
+        print 'Options:'
+        for i in shopts:
+            print '-%s %s [%s]' % (i, shopts[i], adict[shopts[i]])
+        sys.exit(0)
+        
+    for o, v in opts:
+        o = o[1:] # cut off the dash
+        adict[shopts[o]] = v
+
+# test if invoked from command line
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    adict = {}
+    for i in sys.argv:
+        adict[i] = len(i)
+
+    # print the help
+    dictarg(adict, ['-?'])
+
+    # test functionality
+    print 'Enter test arguments: ',
+    line = sys.stdin.readline()[:-1].split(' ')
+    dictarg(adict, line)
+    print adict