worker thread parameterization; sketch out wide-conversion scratch program; fix one common crash case in some pdb conversions

src/base/base_entry_point.c

@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ main_thread_base_entry_point(int arguments_count, char **arguments)
   
   //- rjf: initialize all included layers
 #if defined(ASYNC_H) && !defined(ASYNC_INIT_MANUAL)
-  async_init();
+  async_init(&cmdline);
 #endif
 #if defined(RDI_FROM_PDB_H) && !defined(P2R_INIT_MANUAL)
   p2r_init();