Of course, the problem is much greater than just Java. Most Linux and UNIX software uses the hyphen as the switch character for command-line args. Curiously, this problem does not exist in Windows, because the universal command-line character is a forward slash (/), which is not allowed in file names.
This problem points out the fact that despite the long push towards code inspection, code analysis, unit testing, etc. that has occurred during the last decade, these tools are only as good as the perceptions of the developers writing and using them. Hence, widely pervasive beliefs are still going to infect even our best efforts, until we begin to really think outside the box of our own prejudices to get at subtle aspects of software quality. I will have more on these blindspots in later posts.
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