this feels like a silly thing to say but even though i’ve been using linux since 2004 I feel like i’m learning recently that the impact of the GNU project’s software (and its design decisions) on me is even bigger than I thought

like even just the fact that (afaik) many of them used Emacs has an impact on me today

(please no “it’s GNU/Linux”)

@b0rk people mock the "GNU Coding Standard" because its specification of how to indent C is legitimately weird. But that's actually the least important part of the document. There is stuff in there about how programs should *behave* that's been much more influential.

https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Program-Behavior.html

Program Behavior (GNU Coding Standards)

Program Behavior (GNU Coding Standards)

@zwol ooh I should look at this thanks

@zwol “Please define long-named options that are equivalent to the single-letter Unix-style options. We hope to make GNU more user friendly this way.”

i had no idea this was the goal and it’s so good

@b0rk @zwol This is defining behavior from GNU. It doesn't exist in CP/M or DOS. It doesn't exist in Unix. This "GNU-ism" is so useful that people straight up stopped using POSIX `getopt(3)` over it.
@Conan_Kudo @b0rk @zwol CP/M and DOS were shitty Unix ripoffs and their options syntax was terrible
@bascule @Conan_Kudo @b0rk I always thought CP/M's command line interface was ripping off VMS, or possibly whatever DEC's OS before VMS was