[TUHS] Command line options and complexity

[Dave Horsfall]

On Fri, 13 Mar 2020, Greg 'groggy' Lehey wrote:

>>>  $ ls -l | humanize
>>
>> I also had something like that in mind, except being British/Australian
>> I'd spell it with an "s" :-)
>
> It's a common misconception that -ize is US English.  The Oxford English 
> Dictionary, normally not prescriptive, prefers it.  See 
> https://www.oed.com/page/faqs/Frequently+asked+questions#spell.  I 
> personally had -ise drummed out of me by my uncle, very much Australian.

I'm familiar with that (and also the fact that "aluminum" and "color" etc 
were British spelling).  Being born and bred British with pedantic parents 
I've always hated "American" spelling as we called it, and it's sad to see 
such noted media as the Sydney Morning Herald slowly adopting it over the 
past few years; Australia has used British spelling at least since I 
emigrated here in 1965.

Oh, it was meant to be a creat/create joke, BTW...

>> More than likely; as I approach age 68 I notice that I'm losing some 
>> cognitive facility...  I might start using "," and see if I like it, 
>> but I see that the Mac doesn't have it (my Penguin is off the air at 
>> the moment), and having it as an environment variable would be nice.
>
> Yes, currently only FreeBSD has it.  But you have the sources.  Apart 
> from option handling, it's only:

[...]

I don't like my chances with suggesting that to Apple; I'm not even sure 
if they even take user contributions (although back when I was on the dole 
and having delusions of grandeur I did register as an Apple developer, but 
I suspect that that's for non-Apple stuff i.e. it goes into the Apple 
Store).

> A quick and dirty fix would be simply to replace the format string.

I have done the odd binary patch (usually to reconfigure Unify database 
volumes back when I was with FGH)...  Not right now, though, as it's time 
for bed.

-- Dave