Use `argparse` in `timeit`

[picnixz]

Proposal:

timeit currently uses getopt, and the __main__ code is a bit messy (see #137587). As such, I'm suggesting that we move to argparse instead. The --help contains the entire module's docstring which I believe could be truncated (for instance, it includes the classes and functions that are available in the module).

Has this already been discussed elsewhere?

This is a minor feature, which does not need previous discussion elsewhere

Links to previous discussion of this feature:

No response

Linked PRs

• gh-137944: use argparse instead of getopt in timeit #137955

[picnixz]

(Marking it as a feature as it will now produce a colored help)

[serhiy-storchaka]

I advise against migrating from getopt to argparse until we solve the main design issues of argparse. And for such simple CLI getopt may be simpler.

[picnixz]

And for such simple CLI getopt may be simpler.

Actually, the diff for the CLI itself is smaller when using argparse (although the complexity is then moved to the parser help strings itself but at least we don't show the entire docstring when doing --help and have the color support).

The parsing itself is, IMO, better handled by argparse, but I'm ok with waiting until the argparse core issues are solved (which are they?)

[serhiy-storchaka]

until the argparse core issues are solved (which are they?)

They mainly exhibit themselves in a way how argparse handles option values that start with "-" (the core issue is deeper). Nothing of this seems relevant to the timeit interface, because all numerical arguments are positive and it is difficult to find a setup code that starts with unary minus. But there may be other issues.

[picnixz]

Yeah... I think I actually hit one of those cases where -- is weirldy handled. I decided to hold the PR for now, but I'll close both the issue and PR as I don't think I'll be back before long.