Stolen shamelessly from Michael Sparks' http://pastebin.com/fc0b32a3

mps_parseargs.py

# Stolen shamelessly from Michael Sparks' http://pastebin.com/fc0b32a3

def parseargs(argv, longopts, longflags):
    args = {}
    for k, key in longopts:
        try:
            i = argv.index("--"+key)
            F = longopts[k,key].__class__(argv[i+1])
            args[key] = F
            del argv[i+1]
            del argv[i]
        except ValueError:
            try:
                i = argv.index("-"+k)
                F = longopts[k,key].__class__(argv[i+1])
                args[key] = F
                del argv[i+1]
                del argv[i]
            except ValueError:
                if longopts[k,key] == None:
                    print "missing argument: --"+key, "-"+k
                    sys.exit(0)
                args[key] = longopts[k,key]

    for f,flag in longflags:
        try:
            i = argv.index("--"+flag)
            args[flag] = True
            del argv[i]
        except ValueError:
            try:
                i = argv.index("-"+f)
                args[flag] = True
                del argv[i]
            except ValueError:
                args[flag] = False

    rest = [a for a in argv if len(argv)>0 and a[0] != "-"]
    args["__anon__"] = rest
    return args

import sys

args = parseargs( sys.argv[1:],
                      { ("f", "file" ): "audio.raw",
                        ("c", "channels"): 2,
                        ("r", "rate"): 44100,
                      },
                      [("h","help")],
                )