Parsing Command-Line with Options

[Dittymaster]

I understand the basic idea of parsing parameters, but I do not understand how to convert the strings into static boolean variables.
The static boolean constants are:
DEBUG -d Debug Mode
DEBUG -debug ^
-o<file>
The Prodived Header File:

#ifndef _OPTIONS_GUARD
#define _OPTIONS_GUARD 1

#include <string>
#include <vector>

//
// An aggregation class for options specified in the command-line
//
class Options
{
  public:
    Options(int, char**);
    virtual bool parseCommandLine();
	virtual ~Options() {}

    static bool DEBUG;

  protected:
    int _argc;
    char** _argv;
	
    bool handleOption(int& index);
	
  private:
    Options();
};

#endif 

The Main Class

#include <vector>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <string>

#include "Options.h"
#include "Tokenizer.h"
#include "Token.h"
#include "TestRunner.hpp"
#include "MyVector.hpp"

bool runAllTestFiles(const Options& options)
{
	std::string outFile = options.getOutputFile();
    std::ofstream ofs(outFile.c_str());
	std::ostream& os = outFile.empty() ? std::cout : ofs;
	
	//
	// Execute the 'script' for each input file specified on the command-line
	//
	// TODO
}

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    if (argc < 2)
    {
        std::cerr << "Usage: <program> -debug <input-command-files> -o <output-file>" << std::endl;

        return 1;
    }

    //
    // Command-line options object / parsing
    //
    Options options(argc, argv);
    if (!options.parseCommandLine())
    {
        std::cerr << "Command-line parsing failed; exiting." << std::endl;
        return 1;
    }

    if (Options::DEBUG) std::cout << "Debug flag has been specified." << std::endl;

	runAllTestFiles(options);
	
    return 0;
}

[coder777]

Why is the variable static?

Anyway: You set the variable to true when you detect the appropriate condition (like the presence of 'Debug') otherwise it remains false.