2020-04-25, 16:39, David Mooter:
The purpose of ls when on standard out is for the human eye to read the file names.
I agree. In light of the following, however...
Yes, it can be turned off.
... and the fact that a good chunk of the people who would care about or even notice the difference already use aliases or shell functions instead of stock ls, generating traction for such a change could prove difficult.
Furthermore, added quotes *do* convey additional information without even interfering with character alignment... Now that I think about it, I consider quoting the more preferable default--though I certainly agree with some of your points.
