[TUHS] Of flags and keyletters

[Warner Losh]

On Sat, Mar 2, 2024, 11:24 AM Paul Winalski <paul.winalski at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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"
>

And the variables set were named Xflag.

Warner

>
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