>> 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.
>
> "b" = Bytes
> "c" - Characters
>
> Developer's choice/prerogative. :)

Nice choice of "-" and "=" there. :-P

But yes, that's why the names. Because, obviously 1 character = 1 byte. 
Oh, wait...

And hey, even if that were true, it's *still* an inconsistent naming of 
command switches. Some commands expect -c and some expect -b, and you 
just have to memorise which is which. (A tiny few commands accept BOTH, 
and actually do the correct thing with multi-byte characters... But not 
very many!)

>> 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!>_<
>
> Try about 50 years.  UNIX came about in 1969.  Some of the development
> work obviously would've been before it was released.

That's a bit before my time. But the main point still stands - it's a 
collection of tools independently developed by mostly unrelated 
individuals over a period of several decades. There never was any 
overarching design plan.

Post a reply to this message