Altering default selection of packages from command line

["Dr. Frank Lee" <rl201 at cam dot ac dot uk>]

My apologies - I seem to have drifted more off-topic than cgf prefers in 
the previous mail. (The link between interactive installation and 
non-interactive installation seemed clear to me - I was incorrect, 
however.)

I hacked together a patch for a "/p package1[,package2[,...]]" flag to
install package1,2 etc at install time for internal use which was
circulated some months ago - and rightly rejected for inclusion since the
coding style (I'm not a C/C++ programmer!) was terrible. I now feel it's a
good idea to raise the issue again - possibly requesting some help
regarding the 'right' way to do this with a view to getting the patch
accepted. Any volunteers to provide some assistance if I revisit this
patch and attempt to write it properly?

Yours,

Frank