# collect command-line options in a dictionary

def getopts(argv):
    opts = {}
    while argv:
        if argv[0][0] == '-':                  # find "-name value" pairs
            opts[argv[0]] = argv[1]            # dict key is "-name" arg
            argv = argv[2:]                    
        else:
            argv = argv[1:]
    return opts

if __name__ == '__main__':
    from sys import argv                       # example client code
    myargs = getopts(argv)
    if myargs.has_key('-i'):
        print myargs['-i']
    print myargs