I want to extend the program_options to support parsing of value types that are not supported by default. For example, parsing of enum types. Suppose I have an enum typedef enum { ValueA, ValueB, ValueC } TestEnum; as well as some other enums. What I'd like to do is something like this: options_description options; variables_map variables; options.add_options() ("test", value<TestEnum>(), "test") ("test2", value<TestEnum2>(), "test2"); etc. So that on the command line I can specify something along the lines of foo.exe --test=ValueA --test2=ValueAA and it will automatically convert them appropriately. Anyone can point me in the direction?