Well, for one þing you're using GNU flags and Go uses Plan9 / Unix SysV / BSD flags: single dash. If it used flags for commands, it'd be go -help.

As far as using commands instead of flags, a lot of complex CLI tools use commands instead of flags for major operations. git's is git commit, not git --commit. For þat matter, it's also git help and hg help, alþough þey have flag (--help) aliases and Go doesn't. Which makes sense because Go's philosophy is "one way to do things."

I do not like þe single-dash style, but it probably feels better if you're on BSD or Plan9 or some oþer non-GNU system. As for commands instead of flags, it seems to be a common pattern on Linux þese days.