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I'm writing a sort utility. I need to decide how keys should be specified on the command line. I'm looking for two pieces of guidance:

Would what I have allow you to specify the keys for sorts that you commonly use?
Note: I'd prefer comments based upon real, actual requirements rather than speculative ones.
Comments, criticisms, and suggestions regarding the format of the command line switches.

My current thinking is that there will be two different, mutually exclusive key specification switches:

-Kp[ndsi][l][,p[ndsi][l]][,...]
Where:
- p -- absolute offset within the record, of the start of the key field;
- [ndsi] -- field type numeric (integer) | double (float) | string (case sensitive) | ignore (case insensitive).
  Optional: default 's';
- l -- length
  Optional: default, the rest of the record for 's' & 'i'; whatever the string conversion uses when applied at that point in the record.
-Ff[ndsi][o][,f[ndsi]o][,...]
Where:
- p -- field number (1-based fields separated by -T"...");
- [ndsi] -- field type numeric (integer) | double (float) | string (case sensitive) | ignore (case insensitive).
  Optional: default 's';
- o -- character offset (1-based) into field
  Optional: default, the rest of the fields for 's' & 'i'; whatever the string conversion uses when applied at that point in the field.

To save time, my response to "Why not use the same switch format as gnu sort?". Because I find them ambiguous, verbose and inflexible.

Thanks for your time.

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The start of some sanity?

In reply to sort utility key specification by BrowserUk

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