Byte Positions Are Better Than Line Numbers

Given a byte position in a file, how would a human navigate there? Where's byte offset 6 in "おはようございます"?

The argument about big files is also pretty weak. Big files are the exception, not the rule. And line/col values happen on error paths, not the happy path. So processing time is largely irrelevant.

AND, this extra processing would be done offline anyway, since the parser always knows the line/col because it has to process the whole file every time regardless.

We use line/col instead of byte position for good reason: it just plain works better for our use cases.

But for people looking at files with text editors?