[roeme]

less was started (~ '83) before getopt() was made available to the 'general' public ('85).

My guess is nobody bothered to replace these parts, since options were only added gradually; if at all. Coincidentally i'm in the same predicament with a tool a coworker of mine (initially) wrote, convoluted option parsing to say the least; but I'm too busy with fixing other parts or adding proper functionality to it than to replace it.

Sometimes, 'less is more'.

[AceJohnny2]

You couldn't help it, could you? :)

[dredmorbius]

Many moons ago I mentioned the story of "more" and "less" to our (female) DBA, who was unfamiliar with the commands, and the expression "less is more".

"It's right in the manpage, actually". "No." "Yes, I'll send it to you."

And so I did, with the subject line "man less".

She sat at a desk right in front of mine, and I detected a somewhat painful silence as the email arrived. And realized I'd just inadvertently commented on her social life (confirmed through later conversations).