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From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc,comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: UNIX mind-set  (was: How wrong is MS-DOS?)
Message-ID: <11107@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 18 Jan 91 20:08:21 GMT
References: <5339@idunno.Princeton.EDU> <1991Jan14.230313.4737@csis.dit.csiro.au> <11493@lanl.gov> <1991Jan18.032416.27559@decuac.dec.com>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 52

In article <1991Jan18.032416.27559@decuac.dec.com> mjr@hussar.dco.dec.com (Marcus J. Ranum) writes:
: ttw@lanl.gov (Tony Warnock) writes:
: 
: >     It's good to see that some people recognize that
: >UNIX is a religion (rather than an operating system.)
: 
: 
: 	And here I thought it was a dessert topping...
: -- 
: 	The finer things in life never change. Good code stays small, fast,
: lean and mean. There's not much good code around.
: 			[From the programming notebooks of a heretic, 1990]

Speaking of the UNIX mindset, I have yet to see a note from this "heretic" that 
I would consider heretical.  Some oversimplifications, perhaps.  All in all,
pretty much right down the party line.

You want heresy, I'll give you heresy.  :-)

How 'bout this:

Decomposition does you no good if you can't compose.

Shell syntax is similar to (and almost as useless as) transformational grammar.

A language that overly encourages coining suffers rapid dialectical divergence.

There's too much good code around.

If someone claims to be avoiding complexity, check under his rug.

Using a simple language on a complex problem doesn't result in a simple
solution.

Languages don't differ in what you can say--they differ in what you must say.

People don't mind context-dependency very much.

Lean and mean code can bully you.

A religion based solely on either hedonism or stoicism is wrong.

Programming should be a fun discipline.

Sometimes you want everything to look like a nail.

There's More Than One Way To Do It.

    That should do for starters...

Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov