I'd say hiding BOM is a pretty bad idea: less doesn't AFAIK hide any other characters (at least without -R).
BOM is a piece of binary junk that most programs don't accept, thus it'd be a cause of hard to explain syntax errors. Meow! -- ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀ I've read an article about how lively happy music boosts ⣾⠁⢰⠒⠀⣿⡁ productivity. You can read it, too, you just need the ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ right music while doing so. I recommend Skepticism ⠈⠳⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀ (funeral doom metal).
