On 14/03/2013 04:07 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:59:14 +0000, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>
>> Unix commands and their switches follow no reason or rhyme
>
> Sometimes it certainly appears that way.  In this instance, I think it's
> a case of "-r" and "-R" were already used as a secondary option for the
> query parameter, and 'e' is the next letter in "remove".  -U was already
> used for "upgrade".

Like I said, half the text-processing commands let you specify how many 
bytes to process using -b, and half call it -c. No reason, they just do.

But then again, we're not talking about a coherently designed system, 
we're talking about a random collection of tools and utilities 
independently developed by unrelated individuals over the course of 70+ 
years. Add in a few layers of backwards compatibility and YUCK! >_<

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