[Tutor] Dual interface app

[Alan Gauld]

> problems when I thought this out further. What if someone runs it
from a
> command line and forgets to add the arguments? The program will
check
> for command line arguments, then it will check the cgi form values
and
> assume it's being called from the web interface.

So put that check inside a try/except clause and if the cgi lookup
fails the except can either supply defaults or use raw_input to
prompt the user.


if len(sys.argv) == argCount:
   args = sys.argv
else:
   try:
     args = getCGIvalues()
   except ????:   # whatever the cgi module raises...
     args = raw_input('gimme the args ')

# now process args...


> Does anyone have any other ideas? Is there a way to detect if a
program
> is being called from the command line vs web without too much
voodoo?

Not sure what happens to __name__ when its a web app, but my guess
is its still __main__...

HTH,

Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web tutor
http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/tutor2/