3 ms·

`--long x` is potentially ambiguous. `x` could be referring to a file if `--long` doesn't take any options, so parsing it correctly depends on this knowledge. T

by grose 4y ago

`--long x` is potentially ambiguous. `x` could be referring to a file if `--long` doesn't take any options, so parsing it correctly depends on this knowledge. The equals sign removes this ambiguity.

twic 4y ago
If we were starting from scratch, we could require some marker on flags which take values. Perhaps it would have to be `--long: x`. `--verbose x` would be read as a flag with no argument, followed by a positional argument.
- Karellen 4y ago
  Isn’t that just replacing “=“ with “:”?
  - twic 4y ago
    No, there's a space in there too!
    - jolmg 4y ago
      This works to allow values to be optional while not requiring concatenation of strings in languages where that's troublesome like C. It only lacks in being able to work with brace expansion to facilitate specifying multiple values.