import argparse
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument('-v','--version',action='version', version='demo',help='Print version information')
parser.add_argument('-d','--debug', help='Enable Debug Mode')
parser.add_argument('a','arg', help="Argument Documentation")
args = parser.parse_args()
Personally I feel like this is more readable code, gets me better validation, and help docs for "free". That's the attraction.