If you think about it, a CLI argument parser takes in a sequence of tokens and transforms the information into some kind of internal repsentation, which is then later interpreted. Just like what a compiler/interpreter does, except now the input is already tokenized. So there does not seem to be a practical way to "standardize" this interface any more than you can standardize a compiler for all languages.

It's kinda whacky to think about that every sufficiently complicated CLI app out there implements its own ad-hoc, informally-specified, bug-ridden, slow implementation of half of common lisp _just_ to prepare running the actual program payload...

PS: not saying reusing a flag is a good idea, but like, macOS is not Linux, it’s Unix, and mostly it’s the exact same differences on FreeBSD or illumos or openbsd, because the syntax comes from AT&T Research Unix in the 1970s (the oldest known code in FreeBSD is around 1979 iirc, and there is a direct lineage back to sys-v). Obviously it’s a little different, but on the flip side this is how you avoid churn - you don’t change things just for change’s sake, and you fit into the existing style even if you don’t like it.

From the BSD perspective it’s like you’re coming in and shouting about rewriting everything in rust on your first day, especially since BSD does place a much higher emphasis on interface stability etc. For example unlike linux, BSD offers ABI stability, and that is one of the selling points for building something on top of it. Nor is there any systemd or upstart - or a million different directories and styles for conf files. rc.conf basically does almost everything you need for OS conf.

One net benefit is that it’s actually possible to write and maintain documentation, and it doesn’t bitrot in every single major release. Those FreeBSD forum posts from 2007 are still valid. And if you need to build some appliance that will be running unattended for years… BSD doesn’t churn like that.

But the price is you have to learn new syntax (really, the old syntax) for a half dozen system commands. Or just install the gnu version of those packages (“brew/portmaster install findutils gtar greputils” mostly covers it). It’s pretty much the first speedbump everyone hits on their first Unix, and it’s ultimately a trivial one, but yeah, there’s no desire or real reason to churn it either.

It’s the bazaar vs the cathedral, and the cathedral has some advantages too. You’d say code smell, I’d say fine patina. A lot of Unix code has had 30 or 40 years to work out the bugs and edge-cases in a controlled manner. It’s not worth losing that so newbies can have a little easier time their first week. Use gnu versions if there’s a pain point.