From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu From: "AMSRL-CI-CN" Message-ID: References: <3cb3dded4b8cad85cd6887800a46bc25@plan9.bell-labs.com> Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: [9fans] samuel (fwd) Date: Mon, 4 Mar 2002 10:04:01 +0000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 5e49d7bc-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 "rob pike" wrote in message news:3cb3dded4b8cad85cd6887800a46bc25@plan9.bell-labs.com... > This all drives home my position on these matters, which is that > general purpose tools that work well together almost always trump > special purpose tools such as language-specific ones. And even when > they don't, they win overall by being applicable to domains far beyond > the reach of the special-purpose ones. Indeed! I think the main reason Unix was such a hit was that it provided a relatively complete and well integrated text-file tool kit along with means to conveniently combine the tools. Many years back I posted to sci.crypt an example of the use of those tools in (intermediate level) cryptanalysis. I can't seem to find it via DejaNews, though. I did find a posting where I gave examples of how one's own small custom programs can be effectively combined with the standard toolkit (typo corrected in this reprint): $ # Find anagram of NABAAN: $ anabet < /usr/pub/words > analist $ echo NABAAN | anabet # also illustrates what anabet does AAABNN NABAAN $ grep '^AAABNN ' < analist AAABNN BANANA $ # Find keyword corresponding to transposition key 3 1 8 2 7 6 5 4: $ transkey < /usr/pub/words > keylist $ grep '^3 1 8 2 7 6 5 4:' < keylist 3 1 8 2 7 6 5 4: CARBOLIC