[comex]

I agree that ideally shell scripts should be maintainable, and that designs which allow both succinctness and maintainability – like supporting both short and long flags – are preferable. But there will always be cases where you have to choose between the two, and in those cases I think a shell should choose succinctness. For all of the Unix shell’s weaknesses as a programming language, it’s an incredibly powerful tool for interactive programming, writing one-liners at the shell prompt. And when you’re trying to program as close as possible to the speed of thought, every keystroke counts.

[solipsism]

And when you’re trying to program as close as possible to the speed of thought, every keystroke counts.

And when is that ever important? I've been in development and sre roles for decades, and I've never been in a situation where I have to program at the speed of thought.

The only time I've seen milliseconds matter is watching movie depictions of hackers.