Let's say that 'bheerdb' is an interface to an external data store. It has a bunch of options that are typically used in a few standard patterns. I'd like to save a bunch of typing by aliasing 'bheerdb' to various names and using $0 to set appropriate defaults for getopt. For example, 'create-tap duff' should set defaults '--action create' and '--type domestic', while 'update-tap --class premium duff' should only set a default of '--action update'.

The aliases I'm using are all 'verb-objtype' and some defaults depend on the verb, some on objtype, and a few actually depend on both. I guess I need some sort of decision table, but Re^3: Burned by precedence rules is the only Perlmonks discussion that even mentions the subject. I don't want to write a bunch of wrapper scripts, because I occasionally need to change the default values, and I don't want to have to change a bunch of scripts. So if anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate hearing them.

BTW, as I was writing my question, I realized that what I need is similar to something usually found in text adventure games, where there's a generic response to some commands, which can be overridden by both the object and the room you're in. I guess I'll look into that as well.