diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index bfe4b89..44667fe 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ build/
 *.a
 *.dat
 data/
+tdmripper
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 1533b70..14a25bb 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 # tdm_ripper
 
-The tdm_ripper provides convenient access to the TDM/TDMS data format employed by
+The tdm_ripper provides convenient access to the TDM/TDMS data format
+(TDM = Technical data management) employed by
 National Instruments LabView and DIAdem.
 
 ## Data Format
@@ -113,3 +114,7 @@ wrapper.
   prefix for all csv. files.
   Note, that all string arguments must be converted to bytes before passing to
   the argument list by prepending "b".
+
+## References
+
+- https://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/371361R-01/lvhowto/ni_test_data_exchange/
diff --git a/pytdm_ripper.pyx b/cython/pytdm_ripper.pyx
similarity index 100%
rename from pytdm_ripper.pyx
rename to cython/pytdm_ripper.pyx
diff --git a/setup.py b/cython/setup.py
similarity index 100%
rename from setup.py
rename to cython/setup.py
diff --git a/setup_osx.py b/cython/setup_osx.py
similarity index 100%
rename from setup_osx.py
rename to cython/setup_osx.py
diff --git a/tdm_ripper.pxd b/cython/tdm_ripper.pxd
similarity index 100%
rename from tdm_ripper.pxd
rename to cython/tdm_ripper.pxd
diff --git a/main.cpp b/main.cpp
deleted file mode 100644
index 5fce24f..0000000
--- a/main.cpp
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,70 +0,0 @@
-
-
-#include "lib/tdm_ripper.hpp"
-
-int main(int argc, char* argv[])
-{
-  // path of filename provided ?
-  assert( argc > 1 && "please provide a filename and path" );
-
-  std::cout<<"number of CLI-arguments: "<<argc<<"\n";
-  for ( int i = 0; i < argc; i++ ) std::cout<<std::setw(5)<<i<<":   "<<argv[i]<<"\n";
-
-  // declare and initialize tdm_ripper
-  assert( argc == 3 );
-  tdm_ripper ripper(argv[1],argv[2],false); //,"samples/SineData.tdx",false);
-
-  // ripper.list_datatypes();
-  // ripper.show_structure();
-
-  ripper.print_hash_local("data/hash_table_xml_local.dat");
-  ripper.print_hash_values("data/hash_table_xml_value.dat");
-  ripper.print_hash_double("data/hash_table_xml_double.dat");
-  ripper.print_extid("data/channel_ext_id.dat");
-
-  ripper.list_groups();
-  std::ofstream gout("data/list_of_groups.dat");
-  ripper.list_groups(gout);
-  gout.close();
-
-  ripper.list_channels();
-  std::ofstream fout("data/list_of_channels.dat");
-  ripper.list_channels(fout);
-  fout.close();
-
-  // long int nsa = 6.3636349745e10; // expected result: 22.07.2016, 19:49:05
-  // long int nsb = 6.3636350456e10;
-  // std::string ts = std::to_string(nsa);
-  // std::cout<<ripper.unix_timestamp(ts)<<"\n";
-
-  std::cout<<"number of channels "<<ripper.num_channels()<<"\n";
-  std::cout<<"number of groups "<<ripper.num_groups()<<"\n\n";
-
-  // obtain some specific meta information tags
-  std::cout<<"\n"<<ripper.get_meta("SMP_Name")<<"\n";
-  std::cout<<ripper.get_meta("SMP_Aufbau_Nr")<<"\n";
-  std::cout<<ripper.get_meta("SMP_Type")<<"\n";
-  std::cout<<ripper.get_meta("Location")<<"\n\n";
-
-  // print all meta information
-  ripper.print_meta("data/meta_info.csv");
-
-  // for ( int i = 0; i < ripper.num_groups(); i++ )
-  // {
-  //   std::cout<<std::setw(10)<<i+1<<std::setw(10)<<ripper.no_channels(i+1)<<"\n";
-  //   for ( int j = 0; j < ripper.no_channels(i+1); j++ )
-  //   {
-  //     std::cout<<std::setw(10)<<i+1<<std::setw(10)<<j+1<<std::setw(30)<<ripper.channel_name(i+1,j+1)<<"\n";
-  //   }
-  // }
-
-  // for ( int i = 3; i < 10; i++ )
-  for ( int i = 0; i < ripper.num_channels(); i++ )
-  // for ( int i = 11880; i < ripper.num_channels(); i++ )
-  {
-    ripper.print_channel(i,("data/channel_"+std::to_string(i+1)+"_"
-                                        +ripper.channel_name(i)+".dat").c_str());
-  }
-
-  return 0;
-}
diff --git a/makefile b/makefile
index 6e0c0da..594b0b8 100644
--- a/makefile
+++ b/makefile
@@ -1,25 +1,44 @@
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
 
+# declare name of executable
+EXE = tdmripper
 
-EXE = tdm_parser
+# compiler and C++ standard
 CC = g++ -std=c++11
-# -stdlib=libc++
-CPPFLAGS = -O3 -Wall -Werror -Wunused-variable -Wsign-compare
+
+# compiler options and optimization flags
+OPT = -O3 -Wall -Werror -Wunused-variable -Wsign-compare
+
+# include library path
 LIB = pugixml/
 
-$(EXE) : main.o tdm_ripper.o
-	$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $^ -o $@
+# determine git version/commit tag
+TAGV := $(shell git describe --tag | head -n1)
+COMM := $(shell git rev-parse HEAD | head -c8)
+GITV := $(TAGV)-g$(COMM)
 
-main.o : main.cpp
-	$(CC) -c $(CPPFLAGS) -I $(LIB) $< -o $@
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+# CLI tool
+
+$(EXE) : main.o tdm_ripper.o
+	$(CC) $(OPT) $^ -o $@
+
+# build main.cpp object file and include git version/commit tag
+main.o : src/main.cpp
+	@cp $< $<.cpp
+	@sed -i 's/tagfullstring/$(GITV)/g' $<.cpp
+	@sed -i 's/versionstring/$(TAGV)/g' $<.cpp
+	$(CC) -c $(OPT) -I $(LIB) -I lib/ $<.cpp -o $@
+	@rm $<.cpp
 
 tdm_ripper.o : lib/tdm_ripper.cpp lib/tdm_ripper.hpp
-	$(CC) -c $(CPPFLAGS) -I $(LIB) $< -o $@
+	$(CC) -c $(OPT) -I $(LIB) $< -o $@
 
 extall : extract_all.o tdm_ripper.o
-	$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $^ -o extract_all
+	$(CC) $(OPT) $^ -o extract_all
 
 extract_all.o : extract_all.cpp
-	$(CC) -c $(CPPFLAGS) -I $(LIB) $< -o $@
+	$(CC) -c $(OPT) -I $(LIB) $< -o $@
 
 clean :
 	rm -f $(EXE) *.o
@@ -28,6 +47,9 @@ clean :
 	rm -f data/*.dat
 	rm -f data/*.csv
 
+# --------------------------------------------------------------------------- #
+# python module
+
 pylib : setup.py pytdm_ripper.pyx tdm_ripper.pxd tdm_ripper.o
 	python3 setup.py build_ext --inplace
 
diff --git a/example.py b/python/example.py
similarity index 100%
rename from example.py
rename to python/example.py
diff --git a/extract_all.py b/python/extract_all.py
similarity index 100%
rename from extract_all.py
rename to python/extract_all.py
diff --git a/extract_all.cpp b/src/extract_all.cpp
similarity index 100%
rename from extract_all.cpp
rename to src/extract_all.cpp
diff --git a/src/main.cpp b/src/main.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f9f862c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+// ------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
+
+#include "tdm_ripper.hpp"
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
+
+const std::string tagfull("tagfullstring");
+const std::string version("versionstring");
+
+void show_usage()
+{
+  std::cout<<"\n"
+           <<"tdmripper ["<<tagfull<<"] (Copyright © 2021 Record Evolution GmbH)"
+           <<"\n\n"
+           <<"Decode TDM/TDX files and dump data as *.csv"
+           <<"\n\n"
+           <<"Usage:\n\n"
+           <<" tdmripper [options] <tdm-file> <tdx-file>"
+           <<"\n\n"
+           <<"Options:"
+           <<"\n\n"
+           <<" -d, --outputdir  output directory (must already exist!) for .csv files (default: current working directory)\n"
+           <<" -s, --csvsep     separator character used in .csv files (default is comma ',')\n"
+           <<" -h, --help       show this help message \n"
+           <<" -v, --version    display version\n"
+           <<"\n";
+}
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
+
+// define type of key-value map object
+typedef std::map<std::string,std::string> optkeys;
+
+optkeys parse_args(int argc, char* argv[], bool showargs = false)
+{
+  if ( showargs )
+  {
+    std::cout<<"number of CLI-arguments: "<<argc<<"\n";
+    for ( int i = 0; i < argc; i++ ) std::cout<<i<<":   "<<argv[i]<<"\n";
+  }
+
+  // declare empty key-value object
+  optkeys prsdkeys;
+
+  // at least both tdm and tdx file must be provided
+  if ( argc > 1 )
+  {
+    if ( std::string(argv[1]) == std::string("--help") )
+    {
+      show_usage();
+    }
+    else if ( std::string(argv[1]) == std::string("--version") )
+    {
+      std::cout<<"tdmripper "<<version<<"\n";
+    }
+    else
+    {
+      for ( int i = 1; i < argc; i++ )
+      {
+
+      }
+    }
+  //   {
+  //     if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--image") )
+  //     {
+  //       if ( i+1 == argc || std::string(argv[i+1]).substr(0,2) == std::string("--") )
+  //       {
+  //         throw std::runtime_error("invalid or missing --image argument");
+  //       }
+  //       else
+  //       {
+  //         prsdkeys.insert(std::pair<std::string,std::string>("image",argv[i+1]));
+  //       }
+  //       i++;
+  //     }
+  //     else if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--drive") )
+  //     {
+  //       if ( i+1 == argc || std::string(argv[i+1]).substr(0,2) == std::string("--") )
+  //       {
+  //         throw std::runtime_error("invalid or missing --drive argument");
+  //       }
+  //       else
+  //       {
+  //         prsdkeys.insert(std::pair<std::string,std::string>("drive",argv[i+1]));
+  //       }
+  //       i++;
+  //     }
+  //     else if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--config") )
+  //     {
+  //       if ( i+1 == argc || std::string(argv[i+1]).substr(0,2) == std::string("--") )
+  //       {
+  //         throw std::runtime_error("invalid or missing --config argument");
+  //       }
+  //       else
+  //       {
+  //         prsdkeys.insert(std::pair<std::string,std::string>("config",argv[i+1]));
+  //       }
+  //       i++;
+  //     }
+  //     else if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--writeblocksize") )
+  //     {
+  //       if ( i+1 == argc || std::string(argv[i+1]).substr(0,2) == std::string("--") )
+  //       {
+  //         throw std::runtime_error("invalid or missing --writeblocksize argument");
+  //       }
+  //       else
+  //       {
+  //         prsdkeys.insert(std::pair<std::string,std::string>("writeblock",argv[i+1]));
+  //       }
+  //       i++;
+  //     }
+  //     else if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--readblocksize") )
+  //     {
+  //       if ( i+1 == argc || std::string(argv[i+1]).substr(0,2) == std::string("--") )
+  //       {
+  //         throw std::runtime_error("invalid or missing --readblocksize argument");
+  //       }
+  //       else
+  //       {
+  //         prsdkeys.insert(std::pair<std::string,std::string>("readblock",argv[i+1]));
+  //       }
+  //       i++;
+  //     }
+  //     else if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--novalidate") )
+  //     {
+  //       prsdkeys.insert(std::pair<std::string,std::string>("novalidate","no"));
+  //     }
+  //     else if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--listdrives") )
+  //     {
+  //       prsdkeys.insert(std::pair<std::string,std::string>("listdrives","yes"));
+  //     }
+  //     else if ( std::string(argv[i]) == std::string("--help") )
+  //     {
+  //       show_usage();
+  //     }
+  //     else
+  //     {
+  //       throw std::runtime_error(std::string("invalid argument ") + std::string(argv[i]));
+  //     }
+  //   }
+  }
+  else
+  {
+    // show_usage();
+    throw std::runtime_error(".tdm/.tdx files are missing! see $ ./tdmripper --help for usage");
+  }
+
+  return prsdkeys;
+}
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------------------------- //
+
+int main(int argc, char* argv[])
+{
+  // parse CLI arguments
+  optkeys cfgopts = parse_args(argc,argv);
+
+  // // path of filename provided ?
+  // assert( argc > 1 && "please provide a filename and path" );
+  //
+  // std::cout<<"number of CLI-arguments: "<<argc<<"\n";
+  // for ( int i = 0; i < argc; i++ ) std::cout<<std::setw(5)<<i<<":   "<<argv[i]<<"\n";
+
+  // // declare and initialize tdm_ripper
+  // assert( argc == 3 );
+  // tdm_ripper ripper(argv[1],argv[2],false); //,"samples/SineData.tdx",false);
+  //
+  // // ripper.list_datatypes();
+  // // ripper.show_structure();
+  //
+  // ripper.print_hash_local("data/hash_table_xml_local.dat");
+  // ripper.print_hash_values("data/hash_table_xml_value.dat");
+  // ripper.print_hash_double("data/hash_table_xml_double.dat");
+  // ripper.print_extid("data/channel_ext_id.dat");
+  //
+  // ripper.list_groups();
+  // std::ofstream gout("data/list_of_groups.dat");
+  // ripper.list_groups(gout);
+  // gout.close();
+  //
+  // ripper.list_channels();
+  // std::ofstream fout("data/list_of_channels.dat");
+  // ripper.list_channels(fout);
+  // fout.close();
+  //
+  // // long int nsa = 6.3636349745e10; // expected result: 22.07.2016, 19:49:05
+  // // long int nsb = 6.3636350456e10;
+  // // std::string ts = std::to_string(nsa);
+  // // std::cout<<ripper.unix_timestamp(ts)<<"\n";
+  //
+  // std::cout<<"number of channels "<<ripper.num_channels()<<"\n";
+  // std::cout<<"number of groups "<<ripper.num_groups()<<"\n\n";
+  //
+  // // obtain some specific meta information tags
+  // std::cout<<"\n"<<ripper.get_meta("SMP_Name")<<"\n";
+  // std::cout<<ripper.get_meta("SMP_Aufbau_Nr")<<"\n";
+  // std::cout<<ripper.get_meta("SMP_Type")<<"\n";
+  // std::cout<<ripper.get_meta("Location")<<"\n\n";
+  //
+  // // print all meta information
+  // ripper.print_meta("data/meta_info.csv");
+  //
+  // // for ( int i = 0; i < ripper.num_groups(); i++ )
+  // // {
+  // //   std::cout<<std::setw(10)<<i+1<<std::setw(10)<<ripper.no_channels(i+1)<<"\n";
+  // //   for ( int j = 0; j < ripper.no_channels(i+1); j++ )
+  // //   {
+  // //     std::cout<<std::setw(10)<<i+1<<std::setw(10)<<j+1<<std::setw(30)<<ripper.channel_name(i+1,j+1)<<"\n";
+  // //   }
+  // // }
+  //
+  // // for ( int i = 3; i < 10; i++ )
+  // for ( int i = 0; i < ripper.num_channels(); i++ )
+  // // for ( int i = 11880; i < ripper.num_channels(); i++ )
+  // {
+  //   ripper.print_channel(i,("data/channel_"+std::to_string(i+1)+"_"
+  //                                       +ripper.channel_name(i)+".dat").c_str());
+  // }
+
+  return 0;
+}
+
+// ------------------------------------------------------------------------- //