[selcuka]

Yes, it's horrible. It helps if you know the actual syntax used in zone files, and yes, it's the lack of an answer section.

Alternatively use the short format as suggested by another comment:

    $ dig a www.readlang.com +short
    readlang.com.
    139.144.234.197

Although now it's a bit too short and you can't see the record types (CNAME, A). Sigh.

[chx]

When I dig my personal domain name, I get 19 lines of output of which 1 comes from the zone file and contains the actual answer. The rest is mystery meat.

I mean, sure I can decipher that "rcvd" stands for "received" but if I have my timeline correct there never was a time when such character count mattered and dig existed.