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From: jlg@cochiti.lanl.gov (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.os.misc
Subject: Re: UNIX vs. the world (again) (was: Compilation listing from Sun ...)
Message-ID: <26207@lanl.gov>
Date: 21 Jun 91 17:37:30 GMT
References: <25791@lanl.gov> <1991Jun16.184815.17898@kithrup.COM> <25855@lanl.gov> <1991Jun20.104642.27164@colorado.edu>
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In article <1991Jun20.104642.27164@colorado.edu>, dennisc@tigger.Colorado.EDU (Dennis Colarelli) writes:
|> [...]
|> From the chapter "Cognitive Engineering", in "User Centered System Design,
|> New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction", Norman writes about UNIX:
|> 
|> 	The underlying philosophy is to provide a number of small, carefully
|> 	crafted operations that can be combined in a flexible manner under
|> 	the control of of the user to do the task at hand.  It is something
|> 	like a construction set of computational procedures. 
|> 	...the interface has good ideas...
|> 	Elsewhere I have scolded it for its shortcomings, but we should not
|> 	overlook its strengths.

Yes, and I suppose if I were to heap a great deal of abuse on, say, 
Hitler except at one point I say "but he does have a cute little
Charlie Chaplin mustache," you would probably quote that as my main
thoughts on the subject of Hitler!

Yes, UNIX has a number (a _HUGE_ number) of small utilities.  A very
_few_ of them are carefully crafted.  Pipes are a very limited and
inflexible form of interprocess communication, but they do allow
pretty much arbitrary linking together (rather inefficiently) of 
these tools.  The interface _does_ have good ideas - _IF_ they had
been applied with consistency, _IF_ they provided a complete range 
of functionality, _IF_ they had assured correctness, etc..

The fact that someone says that a produce has _some_ good ideas is not
to be taken as a recommendation of the product.  Usually this kind of
statement is an attempt to bend over backward for something nice to 
say about the product.  From Norman's other statements about UNIX, I
suspect that may be the case here.  (By the way, Hitler's mustache _IS_
about the only nice thing I can thing of about him - and most of the
time I actually regard it as a mark against Chaplin instead.)

J. Giles