import sys
import os

def get_input_parameters() :
    nargs = len(sys.argv)
    print 'sys.argv[0]: ', sys.argv[0]
    print 'nargs: ', nargs
    # Then do something with arguments...

from optparse import OptionParser

def input_option_parser() :

    def_fname = 'spec-xppi0412-r0060-20120507-125420.198726277.txt'
    def_cols = 100

    parser = OptionParser(description='Process optional input parameters.', usage = "usage: %prog [options]")
    parser.add_option('-f', '--fname', dest='fname', default=def_fname, action='store', type='string', help='input file name')
    parser.add_option('-c', '--cols', dest='cols', default=def_cols, action='store', type='int', help='number of columns in the image array')
    parser.add_option('-v', dest='verbose', action='store_true',  help='set flag to print more details',  default=True)
    parser.add_option('-q', dest='verbose', action='store_false', help='set flag to print less details')
    (opts, args) = parser.parse_args()

    print 'opts:',opts
    print 'args:',args

    return (opts, args)

def getListOfFilesInDir(dirname) :
    return os.listdir(dirname)

def printListOfFilesInDir(dirname) :
    print 'List of files in the dir.', dirname
    for name in os.listdir(dirname) :
        print name
    print '\n'

        name, ext = os.path.splitext(fname)
        basename  = os.path.basename(path)
        dirname   = os.path.dirname(path)
        lexist    = os.path.lexists(path)
...