From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.3 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE,RDNS_NONE,SPF_PASS autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: (qmail 19695 invoked from network); 11 Mar 2020 04:03:45 -0000 Received-SPF: pass (minnie.tuhs.org: domain of minnie.tuhs.org designates 45.79.103.53 as permitted sender) receiver=inbox.vuxu.org; client-ip=45.79.103.53 envelope-from= Received: from unknown (HELO minnie.tuhs.org) (45.79.103.53) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTP; 11 Mar 2020 04:03:45 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 3A2B69BB7E; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:03:39 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A96429BB47; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:02:42 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 751489BB47; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:02:38 +1000 (AEST) Received: from frieza.hoshinet.org (ks3374089.kimsufi.com [37.187.103.66]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 458039BB46 for ; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:02:32 +1000 (AEST) Received: by frieza.hoshinet.org (Postfix, from userid 1005) id C3C391C8C79B; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:02:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by frieza.hoshinet.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 65A061C8C798; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:02:30 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:02:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Steve Nickolas X-X-Sender: nicci@frieza.hoshinet.org To: Dave Horsfall In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <202003031815.023IFSlD493028@darkstar.fourwinds.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.02 (BSF 1266 2009-07-14) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Re: [TUHS] Command line options and complexity X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Wed, 11 Mar 2020, Dave Horsfall wrote: > I'm starting to think that if a utility requires many options then perhaps > they ought to be split into filters (or at least environment variables); I > despair at how *ix is drifting from "one tool, one job" to "one size fits > all"... > > The "ls" command for example really needs an option-ectomy; I find that I > don't really care about the exact number of bytes there are in a file as the > nearest KiB or MiB (or even GiB) is usually good enough, so I'd be happy if > "-h" was the default with some way to turn it off (yes, I know that it's > occasionally useful to add them all up in a column, but that won't tell you > how many media blocks are required). > > Quickly now, without looking: which option shows unprintable characters in a > filename? Unless you use it regularly (in which case you have real problems) > you would have to look it up; I find that "ls ... | od -bc" to be quicker, > especially on filenames with trailing blanks etc (which "-B" won't show). It would probably be interesting to define a simplified standard, because yeesh, trying to implement even a command as basic as ls is just torture (mainly because it basically requires putting all of "column" and most of "sort" into it)! > I've never liked GNU's "--bloody-long-option" convention as you still have to > look up which one does what, but I've never thought about that view; a lot of > long options still accept a single character (subject to feeping creaturism, > of course). I'm still into the one-character switch thing, personally. -uso.