From: Ralph Corderoy <ralph@inputplus.co.uk>
To: coff@tuhs.org
Subject: [COFF] Re: On Bloat and the Idea of Small Specialized Tools
Date: Sat, 11 May 2024 18:18:27 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20240511171827.04CAB2039A@orac.inputplus.co.uk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4bd2002a-ea47-4f57-bf0b-b482bac3e96c@tnetconsulting.net>
Hi,
> It wasn't until this thread that I became aware of `pr` as I've been
> an `nl` user for years.
Learning of pr can also be done by reading Kernighan and Plauger's
‘Software tools’. There, it's called print and is more basic but
a variety of enhancements are listed. They then write:
When you write a program, there is a great temptation to add more
and more ‘features’ like these, little things that it will do for
you. But beware -- unless the features work together in a uniform
way, the result is going to be a grab-bag of unrelated capabilities,
most of which won't get used because nobody can remember them.
If you have to look up how to use a program for even the simplest
applications, you know you've gone too far. When in doubt, treat
‘feature’ as a pejorative. (Think of a hundred-bladed Swiss army
knife.)
>From memory, I think all of the significant programs written in that
book have an early Unix ancestor.
--
Cheers, Ralph.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2024-05-11 17:18 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-05-10 16:36 [COFF] " Clem Cole
2024-05-10 23:02 ` [COFF] Re: [TUHS] " Steffen Nurpmeso
2024-05-11 9:18 ` [COFF] " Ralph Corderoy
2024-05-11 21:18 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2024-05-11 21:33 ` Larry McVoy
2024-05-10 23:22 ` [COFF] Re: [TUHS] " Nevin Liber
2024-05-11 9:31 ` [COFF] " Ralph Corderoy
2024-05-11 12:51 ` [COFF] Re: [TUHS] " John P. Linderman
2024-05-11 13:12 ` Dan Cross
2024-05-11 14:41 ` Bakul Shah via COFF
2024-05-11 15:45 ` Grant Taylor via COFF
2024-05-11 17:18 ` Ralph Corderoy [this message]
2024-05-11 21:35 ` Theodore Ts'o
2024-05-12 7:13 ` Gergely Buday
2024-05-12 7:29 ` [COFF] " Ralph Corderoy
2024-05-12 22:23 ` Dave Horsfall
2024-05-11 19:24 ` [COFF] Re: [TUHS] " Clem Cole
2024-05-13 6:20 ` [COFF] " Arno Griffioen via COFF
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