The arguments of ls are simply an optimization for things which are done so frequently that simply typing them over and over becomes a huge waste of time. In t

The arguments of ls are simply an optimization for things which are done so frequently that simply typing them over and over becomes a huge waste of time. In the early days, you can imagine people first typing everything out manually, then creating macros like 'ls | awk {stuff} | sort -k2 |..." and then just getting fed up with your .xxxrc file and modifying the ls source to trim it down to a couple of arguments. Taken to extremes, this article seems to suggest that all command line flags for every executable ought to be replaced with separate executables and pipes. Just imagine how many files would be in /usr/bin, and how many of them you would have to remember just to do useful work every day. We'd have to increase inode limits just to hold all the manpages. An OS like this would not be one I'd like to use.