[F-0X]

>I can't help but think of the 'Unix haters handbook' and groan

The one true gripe they outlined is that the user interface requires some explanation before one can bootstrap their own knowledge.

I'll defend the unix philosophy till I die, probably. Why _wouldn't_ you apply it here?

[bitwize]

Because all the time spent marshalling and unmarshalling data structures into bags of textual bytes takes up CPU and does nothing but hasten the heat death of the universe. We have better models for that sort of thing. See: PowerShell.