Add daily email for 2024-05-23

Why I use long parameter names in scripts

source/_daily_emails/2024-05-23.md

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+---
+title: Why I use long parameter names in scripts
+date: 2024-05-23
+permalink: daily/2024/05/23/why-i-use-long-parameter-names-in-scripts
+tags:
+    - software-development
+    - bash
+    - zsh
+    - linux
+cta: ~
+snippet: |
+    Why I use long parameter names in scripts, such as `--force` instead of `-f`.
+---
+
+The other day, [I posted about a script I'd written][0] that found the longest commit message in a repository.
+
+As I couldn't find a native way to do this with Git, the script loops over each commit in the repository, calculates its length and stores the length and commit SHA in a file.
+
+The lines in the file are sorted so the longest commit is first.
+
+Whilst I commonly use short parameters, such as `git add -p` when typing commands, in scripts, I prefer to use the equivalent longer parameters, where possible.
+
+For example, in the script, I execute this command to sort the lines:
+
+```bash
+sort "${result_file}" --reverse --numeric-sort --output "${result_file}"
+```
+
+This could be re-written as:
+
+```bash
+sort "${result_file}" -rn -o "${result_file}"
+```
+
+Whilst the original is more verbose and longer to type, I prefer its verbosity which makes it easier for me or others to read and understand in the future.
+
+[0]: {{site.url}}/daily/2024/05/21/which-commit-has-the-largest-message