[pretoriusB]

>The arguments to common UNIX commandline tools like sed or xargs are without doubt going to be longer-lived than the arguments to your helper script, likely even longer than the language your helper script was written in, and maybe even longer than the idioms and philosophies you had in mind when you were building your tool(s).

Yes. Sad isn't it?

It's not as if they were perfect when the were designed.