5 ms·

I don't think it's really bash, more the utilities' inconsistent APIs and single-letter flags (which are not descriptive at all). Each command has its own API w

I don't think it's really bash, more the utilities' inconsistent APIs and single-letter flags (which are not descriptive at all). Each command has its own API with different options, so it takes a lot of exposure to really learn them.

ktRolster 10y ago
If you don't like single letter flags, most have options for longer, more descriptive flags that do the same thing. For example, you can either do: Make -I dir or Make --include-dir=dir Choose whichever one makes most sense.
- gcb0 10y ago
  this. anyone who uses single letter options on a script should be punished. single letters are for one time typing.
  - viraptor 10y ago
    Single letters are sometimes more known than their full option equivalents. Quick, without a man page, what's the short alias for `tar --get` ?
    - niftich 10y ago
      I have no idea because I memorized 'tar zxvf' a long time ago [1] and I have to google everything else. [1] https://xkcd.com/1597/ https://xkcd.com/1597/
      - vacri 10y ago
        These days tar autodetects zipfiles, and you don't usually need to see the files as they come out, so you can do 'tar xf' instead...
      - skoczymroczny 10y ago
        I thought you'd post this one https://xkcd.com/1168/ https://xkcd.com/1168/
    - khedoros 10y ago
      I wouldn't use "--get". If I wanted to use the long option, I'd use "--extract".
  - voltagex_ 10y ago
    Until you find yourself on (Free)BSD, where it doesn't look like the long options are supported: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?make(1) https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?make(1)
    - ktRolster 10y ago
      It's here: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gmake https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=gmake
  - vacri 10y ago
    It depends: . is portable, whereas: source is not... which was a surprise. :)