[matt_kantor]

I too love the CLI, but I wish someone would go through and standardize flags, naming, ordering concerns, long-form arguments, etc across all of the POSIX tools. GNU put in some effort here, but in my opinion they didn't go far enough and non-GNU operating systems (BSD, OSX, etc) are missing out.

Actually, as much as I dislike Apple, they're probably one of the few entities that could pull off something like this.

[danielweber]

Honestly I feel like most Unix command-line tools are pretty good. I can make a good guess what "-n" and "-i" will mean on a new Unix tool based on context.

The git commands are a big exception; it's like each individual git command was written by its own committee, each deep with NIH syndrome. The one example I remember is two different git tools having a different way of colorizing their output.

[hderms]

I so agree with you. The only thing I hate about the *nix userland is that all tools follow their own set of arbitrary concerns regarding the things you mentioned. Really limits the intuitiveness and discoverability of the system.

[Kalium]

I don't think Apple could. Their influence on serverland is virtually nil.