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 14088 invoked from network); 11 Mar 2020 03:18:52 -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 03:18:52 -0000 Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 972619BD50; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 13:18:46 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F79F9BB77; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 13:18:17 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id EAE329BB47; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 13:18:13 +1000 (AEST) Received: from viclamta23p.bpe.bigpond.com (viclamta23p.bpe.bigpond.com [203.38.21.87]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D5BFF9BB46 for ; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 13:18:12 +1000 (AEST) Received: from smtp.telstra.com ([10.10.26.4]) by viclafep23p-svc.bpe.nexus.telstra.com.au with ESMTP id <20200311031810.INJD5865.viclafep23p-svc.bpe.nexus.telstra.com.au@smtp.telstra.com> for ; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:18:10 +1100 X-RG-Spam: Unknown X-RazorGate-Vade: gggruggvucftvghtrhhoucdtuddrgedugedruddvuddgheejucetufdoteggodetrfdotffvucfrrhhofhhilhgvmecuuffpveftpgfvgffnuffvtfetpdfqfgfvnecuuegrihhlohhuthemucegtddtnecunecujfgurhepfffhvffujgfkfhgfgggtsehmtddtredtreelnecuhfhrohhmpeffrghvvgcujfhorhhsfhgrlhhluceouggrvhgvsehhohhrshhfrghllhdrohhrgheqnecukfhppeduuddtrddugedurdduleefrddvfeefnecuvehluhhsthgvrhfuihiivgeptdenucfrrghrrghmpehhvghloheprghnvghurhhinhdrhhhorhhsfhgrlhhlrdhorhhgpdhinhgvthepuddutddrudeguddrudelfedrvdeffedpmhgrihhlfhhrohhmpeeouggrvhgvsehhohhrshhfrghllhdrohhrghequceuqfffjgepkeeukffvoffkoffgpdhrtghpthhtohepoehtuhhhshesthhuhhhsrdhorhhgqe X-RazorGate-Vade-Verdict: clean 0 X-RazorGate-Vade-Classification: clean X-RG-VS-CLASS: clean Received: from aneurin.horsfall.org (110.141.193.233) by smtp.telstra.com (5.8.418) id 5DF6FFEC0F0EB08E for tuhs@tuhs.org; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:18:10 +1100 Received: from aneurin.horsfall.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by aneurin.horsfall.org (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTP id 02B3I9eO069996 for ; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:18:09 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from dave@horsfall.org) Received: from localhost (dave@localhost) by aneurin.horsfall.org (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id 02B3I8BN069993 for ; Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:18:09 +1100 (EST) (envelope-from dave@horsfall.org) X-Authentication-Warning: aneurin.horsfall.org: dave owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 14:18:08 +1100 (EST) From: Dave Horsfall To: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <202003031815.023IFSlD493028@darkstar.fourwinds.com> User-Agent: Alpine 2.21.9999 (BSF 287 2018-06-16) X-GPG-Public-Key: http://www.horsfall.org/gpgkey.pub X-GPG-Fingerprint: 05B4 FFBC 0218 B438 66E0 587B EF46 7357 EF5E F58B X-Home-Page: http://www.horsfall.org/ X-Witty-Saying: "chmod 666 the_mode_of_the_beast" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; BOUNDARY="1483753691-338556425-1583896208=:64345" Content-ID: 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: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" This message is in MIME format. The first part should be readable text, while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools. --1483753691-338556425-1583896208=:64345 Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=ISO-8859-15; FORMAT=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Content-ID: On Tue, 10 Mar 2020, Dan Stromberg wrote: > When I took a comparative languages class in school, the teacher said > that the complexity of a programming language varies with the square of > its number of features. That sort of makes sense from a mathematical point of view, if you regard it as a matrix of side effects. I hate to think about how it affects Perl (my favourite language) though :-) > I wonder if it's similar for command line options in shell-callables? 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). > On the other hand, adding command line options was (at least at one > time) seen seen as a way of distinguishing GNU tools from Unix tools - > that is, they were seen as a way of avoiding the copyright lawsuits that > were snipping at BSD's heels. 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). -- Dave --1483753691-338556425-1583896208=:64345--