I'm learning UNIX and I have a simple question

[Dave Eisen]

>In <1991Jun21.144113.22326 at mtune.att.com> jrw at mtune.att.com (Jim Webb) writes:
>>In the SVR3.2 and similiar universes, you can also say 'who -q -n4'

Doug Gwyn replies:
>Yeah, but that sort of thing is problematic.  Different utilities have
>different options to accomplish the same kind of effect (in this case,
>formatting in multiple columns), when they have the options at all.

And besides, what does who have to do with formatting anyway? 

If I were writing who, it would never occur to me to add options to handle 
formatting. I would just worry about getting the user the information e
requested in a flexible format and have em take care of formatting it.

I'm not a mind reader. How should I know what a given user wants eir
output to look like?