Minus always annoys me, because it's long and most times (e.g., chmod <dash>R )you're never actually minusing anything. *
* Some Solaris commands use plus and minus to add and subtract things, but a) everyone hates Solaris commands b) this breaks with convention, hence a).
Yes, I agree. Most "minus" people from my experience have been non-programmers, or at least non-everyday-unix-users that I've either had to train or walk through procedures, etc. And almost universally young.
Yeah, "minus" is math and sounds wrong on the command line.
I suppose 'minus' makes things slightly longer, but is there a way to distinguish between R and r without three extra syllables? Both are likely to come up when chmodding.
"Big 'r'" and "small 'r'"?
What about 'hyphen'? I use 'minus' / 'hyphen' depending on context.
I use "dash" too, but the "-" character is technically a hyphen. Two hyphens ("--") make a dash.