>> What I don't get is what's wrong with "-requires" and
>> "-required-by".  But maybe *I*'m just old and slow.
> I guess that would be equivalent to -r -e -q (etc.),

Only if you insist on parsing that way, and there is nothing compelling
that.  I've done lots of programs that accept full-word options with
single-dash introducers and not one of them confuses -foo with -f -o -o
(mutatis mutandis), so I *know* it's not hard to do.

/~\ The ASCII				der Mouse
\ / Ribbon Campaign
 X  Against HTML	       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
/ \ Email!	     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B