diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index 702f1aa4..1005a391 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -1,3 +1,16 @@
+- look at
+	
+	There is an order 1 algorithm for doing medians over boxes (truly O(1)
+	per pixel: I checked it carefully; it's like doing means over boxes in
+	order 1 per pixel) in OpenCV since February 2012 I think, due to
+	Perreault (and Hebert).
+
+	It appears to be well respected, at least for 8-bit medians. Very
+	memory intensive. Simple and elegant. No clue if it fits VIPS well
+	(probably not?).
+
+	Article: nomis80.org/ctmf.pdf
+
 - update the INCLUDES etc. stuff, see OS X build
 
 - quadratic doesn't work for order 3
diff --git a/libvips/iofuncs/init.c b/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
index fbe93e12..1dd7cf79 100644
--- a/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
+++ b/libvips/iofuncs/init.c
@@ -398,52 +398,52 @@ vips_set_fatal_cb( const gchar *option_name, const gchar *value,
 }
 
 static GOptionEntry option_entries[] = {
-	{ "vips-fatal", 'f', G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN | G_OPTION_FLAG_NO_ARG, 
+	{ "vips-fatal", 0, G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN | G_OPTION_FLAG_NO_ARG, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_CALLBACK, (gpointer) &vips_set_fatal_cb, 
 		N_( "abort on first error or warning" ), NULL },
 	{ "vips-concurrency", 'c', 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_INT, &vips__concurrency, 
 		N_( "evaluate with N concurrent threads" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-tile-width", 'w', G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
+	{ "vips-tile-width", 0, G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_INT, &vips__tile_width, 
 		N_( "set tile width to N (DEBUG)" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-tile-height", 'h', G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
+	{ "vips-tile-height", 0, G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_INT, &vips__tile_height, 
 		N_( "set tile height to N (DEBUG)" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-thinstrip-height", 't', G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
+	{ "vips-thinstrip-height", 0, G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_INT, &vips__thinstrip_height, 
 		N_( "set thinstrip height to N (DEBUG)" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-fatstrip-height", 'f', G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
+	{ "vips-fatstrip-height", 0, G_OPTION_FLAG_HIDDEN, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_INT, &vips__fatstrip_height, 
 		N_( "set fatstrip height to N (DEBUG)" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-progress", 'p', 0, 
+	{ "vips-progress", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_NONE, &vips__progress, 
 		N_( "show progress feedback" ), NULL },
-	{ "vips-leak", 'l', 0, 
+	{ "vips-leak", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_NONE, &vips__leak, 
 		N_( "leak-check on exit" ), NULL },
-	{ "vips-disc-threshold", 'd', 0, 
+	{ "vips-disc-threshold", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_STRING, &vips__disc_threshold, 
 		N_( "images larger than N are decompressed to disc" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-novector", 't', G_OPTION_FLAG_REVERSE, 
+	{ "vips-novector", 0, G_OPTION_FLAG_REVERSE, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_NONE, &vips__vector_enabled, 
 		N_( "disable vectorised versions of operations" ), NULL },
-	{ "vips-cache-max", 'x', 0, 
+	{ "vips-cache-max", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_STRING, &vips__cache_max, 
 		N_( "cache at most N operations" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-cache-max-memory", 'm', 0, 
+	{ "vips-cache-max-memory", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_STRING, &vips__cache_max_mem, 
 		N_( "cache at most N bytes in memory" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-cache-max-files", 'l', 0, 
+	{ "vips-cache-max-files", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_STRING, &vips__cache_max_files, 
 		N_( "allow at most N open files" ), "N" },
-	{ "vips-cache-trace", 'c', 0, 
+	{ "vips-cache-trace", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_NONE, &vips__cache_trace, 
 		N_( "trace operation cache" ), NULL },
-	{ "vips-cache-dump", 'r', 0, 
+	{ "vips-cache-dump", 0, 0, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_NONE, &vips__cache_dump, 
 		N_( "dump operation cache on exit" ), NULL },
-	{ "vips-version", 'v', G_OPTION_FLAG_NO_ARG, 
+	{ "vips-version", 0, G_OPTION_FLAG_NO_ARG, 
 		G_OPTION_ARG_CALLBACK, (gpointer) &vips_lib_version_cb, 
 		N_( "print libvips version" ), NULL },
 	{ NULL }