GNU had to create a convention for the --long flags to fit all of their options. I think the convention itself is good - I prefer long flags in scripts for imp

GNU had to create a convention for the --long flags to fit all of their options. I think the convention itself is good - I prefer long flags in scripts for improved readability. But GNU is anything but minimal - compare GNU ls[1] with BSD ls[2], and try to recall the last time you needed --dereference-command-line-symlink-to-dir. [1]: https://linux.die.net/man/1/ls [2]: http://man.openbsd.org/ls