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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!hou5h!hou5a!hou5d!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ihlts!ryl
From: ryl@ihlts.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cog-eng
Subject: Re: thousands of invocation flags
Message-ID: <186@ihlts.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Aug-83 10:57:48 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlts.186
Posted: Wed Aug 31 10:57:48 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Sep-83 04:45:52 EDT
Organization: BTL Naperville, Il.
Lines: 14


   One simple quasi-standard that was suggested once
was to require at least one argument for every command.
Typing the command with no arguments gives a three-or-four
line use message.  This has the advantage of not requiring
an extra flag for help, and imposes a kind of consistency across
all commands.  Some other simple things were to put a prefix
on each command in the application (e.g., all commands related to
accting would start with acct), and to accept some standard
flags on all commands (like -v for verbose).  However,
these suggestions were entirely too sensible, and therefore
never implemented.

	Long live ls -alphabet,
	Bob Lied	...ihnp4!ihlts!ryl