>I don't like combined single-hyphens for a different reason: sometimes they accept arguments, and it seems strange to me that `-a0` can variously mean `-a 0` a

>I don't like combined single-hyphens for a different reason: sometimes they accept arguments, and it seems strange to me that `-a0` can variously mean `-a 0` and `-a -0`. I think the answer to that is just to stop designing argument parsers that way—if you want -a 0 then maybe -a 0 is acceptable, maybe -a=0 is acceptable, but -a0 should not be. I don’t see how this part is controversial. For the same reason, -all should not be parsed as -a -l -l. >I favour everything being --long --anyway --to-make-it=really-clear. Yeah—I think it would be equally clear to write it like -long -anyway -to-make-it=really-clear, if we decided to make more parsers that worked that way. Some parsers do work that way. >You must like `find`. I have to assume that this is just sarcasm. The `find` command gives you a DSL for writing queries, and for some reason, the tokens in that DSL are option flags starting with -. Bizarre. I don’t think anybody wants to design something like that, and I don’t think there’s really anything to learn from find except maybe “sometimes, for historical reasons, the command-line arguments for standardized tools just plain suck.”