[TUHS] Of flags and keyletters

[Bakul Shah via TUHS]

> On Mar 1, 2024, at 7:49 AM, Douglas McIlroy <douglas.mcilroy at dartmouth.edu> wrote:
> 
> > why did AT&T refer to "flags" as "keyletters" in its SysV documentation?
> 
> Bureaucracies beget bureaucratese--polysyllabic obfuscation, witness APPLICATION USAGE in place of BUGS.
> 
> One might argue that replacing "flag" by "option", thus doubling the number of syllables, was a small step in that direction. In fact it was a deliberate attempt to discard jargon in favor of normal English usage.

Use of "flag" for this purpose seems strange. "option" makes more sense.