[TUHS] Of flags and keyletters

[Paul Winalski]

On 3/1/24, Bakul Shah via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
> Use of "flag" for this purpose seems strange. "option" makes more sense.

I think the term "flag" for command line options comes from the way
that those options are typically implemented in code.  The command
line options are usually used to set a boolean variable in the program
that can be tested to see if the option was present.

"Flag" as a synonym for a boolean variable in turn comes from the
ordinary English verb "to flag", meaning "to mark or identify"

-Paul W.