Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!DIALix!metapro!bernie From: bernie@metapro.DIALix.oz.au (Bernd Felsche) Newsgroups: comp.os.misc Subject: Re: UNIX vs. the world (again) (was: Compilation listing from Sun ...) Message-ID: <1991Jun22.092931.8341@metapro.DIALix.oz.au> Date: 22 Jun 91 09:29:31 GMT References: <25791@lanl.gov> <1991Jun16.184815.17898@kithrup.COM> <25855@lanl.gov> <1991Jun20.104642.27164@colorado.edu> <26207@lanl.gov> Organization: MetaPro Systems, Perth, Western Australia Lines: 40 In <26207@lanl.gov> jlg@cochiti.lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes: >Yes, UNIX has a number (a _HUGE_ number) of small utilities. A very And you only have to learn about the ones you have to use. >_few_ of them are carefully crafted. Pipes are a very limited and What's so complicated about "cat" for example, that requires careful crafting? If the only replacement part for your car was a new car, you'd be upset, wouldn't you? Even if you only want to replace a fuse? UNIX is the programmer's constructor set. Lots of little bits with well tuned functions, and pieces held together by the operating system. >inflexible form of interprocess communication, but they do allow >pretty much arbitrary linking together (rather inefficiently) of Pipes allow data to flow from one filter to another. They do what they do in the best possible way in which they can be implemented on a particular machine. The "inflexibility" you refer to is ludicrous. What more can you expect of a pipe than to allow data to flow from one point to another. >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.. I know of no other operating system which comes close to an "ideal" programming environment. >The fact that someone says that a produce has _some_ good ideas is not UNIX is more of a theology than product. :-) -- Bernd Felsche, _--_|\ #include Metapro Systems, / sold \ Fax: +61 9 472 3337 328 Albany Highway, \_.--._/ Phone: +61 9 362 9355 Victoria Park, Western Australia v Email: bernie@metapro.DIALix.oz.au