What?

GoCommando is a small command line utility helper that does the boring work when creating command line utilities in .NET.

More info coming soon at http://mookid.dk/gocommando

One day, maybe I'll tweet something as well... @mookid8000

How?

Create a new console application. Install-Package GoCommando to get the DLL, and then Go.Run() in the Main method.

And then you add some classes that implement ICommand and you decorate them with [Command] and then you add properties to those classes, and then you decorate those with [Parameter].

And then you decorate the command class and the parameter properties with [Description].

And then you add a couple of [Example] to some of the parameter properties, just to be nice.

Example!

This is the white-russian command in a fictive Beverage utility:

[Command("white-russian")]
[Description("Mixes a White Russian, pouring in milk till full")]
public class WhiteRussian : ICommand
{
    [Parameter("vodka")]
    [Description("How many cl of vodka?")]
    public double Vodka { get; set; }

    [Parameter("kahlua")]
    [Description("How many cl of Kahlua?")]
    public double Kahlua { get; set; }

    [Parameter("lukewarm", optional: true)]
    [Description("Avoid refrigerated ingredients?")]
    public bool LukeWarm { get; set; }

    public void Run()
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Making a {(LukeWarm ? "luke-warm" : "")} beverage" +
                            $" with {Vodka:0.#} cl of vodka" +
                            $" and {Kahlua:0.#} cl of Kahlua");
    }
}

If you invoke it without its command, it will print out the available commands:

C:\> beverage.exe

------------------------------
Beverage Utility

Copyright (c) 2015 El Duderino
------------------------------
Please invoke with a command - the following commands are available:

    white-russian - Mixes a White Russian, pouring in milk till full

Invoke with -help <command> to get help for each command.

Exit code: -1

and then, if you add -help white-russian as an argument, you'll get detailed help for that command:

C:\> beverage.exe -help white-russian

------------------------------
Beverage Utility

Copyright (c) 2015 El Duderino
------------------------------
Mixes a White Russian, pouring in milk till full

Type

    Beverage.exe white-russian <args>

where <args> can consist of the following parameters:

    -vodka
        How many cl of vodka?

    -kahlua
        How many cl of Kahlua?

    -lukewarm (flag/optional)
        Avoid refrigerated ingredients?

If you try to invoke a command, and one or more of the arguments are missing, you'll know:

C:\> beverage white-russian -vodka 1

------------------------------
Beverage Utility

Copyright (c) 2015 El Duderino
------------------------------
The following required parameters are missing:

    -kahlua - How many cl of Kahlua?

Invoke with -help <command> to get help for each command.

Exit code: -1

and then, when you finally invoke the command with the right arguments, it'll run as you would probably expect:

C:\> beverage white-russian -vodka 2 -kahlua 2

------------------------------
Beverage Utility

Copyright (c) 2015 El Duderino
------------------------------
Making a  beverage with 2 cl of vodka and 2 cl of Kahlua

Neat.

License

GoCommando is Beer-ware.