[maw]

Whenever this comes up, I'm reminded of section 5 in https://cr.yp.to/qmail/guarantee.html which among other things says "Don't parse" and "there are two types of command interfaces in the world of computing: good interfaces and user interfaces".

If I were were to teach a class about programming in the medium (as opposed to in the small or in the large), I think I'd assign my students an essay comparing and contrasting these suggestions. Each has something to teach us, and maybe they're not as contradictory as it may seem at first.