[TUHS] Re: [COFF] Re: On Bloat and the Idea of Small Specialized Tools

[markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>]

Hoi.

> On Sat, May 11, 2024 at 2:35 PM Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu> wrote:
> 
>     I bet most of the young'uns would not be trying to do this as a shell
>     script, but using the Cloud SDK with perl or python or Go, which is
>     *way* more bloaty than using /bin/sh.
> 
>     So while some of us old farts might be bemoaning the death of the Unix
>     philosophy, perhaps part of the reality is that the Unix philosophy
>     were ideal for a simpler time, but might not be as good of a fit
>     today

It depends on what the Unix philosophy is seen to be. If it is
solving problems by reading text from standard in and printing to
standard out, then that might not be suitable anymore for many of
today's problems. But if it is prefering plain text to binary,
perfering simple solutions to complex ones, increasing the number
of operations one can perform by combining small generic parts,
... all because of good reasons ... Focussing on simplicity,
clarity, generality ... Omitting needless words! ... All this still
holds true, no matter if applied as shell scripts or within the
design of a new programming language or a programming interface.

It's not so much about the tools we use -- these should be suited
for the times you live in and the problems you have to solve --
but it's more about how you look at them and how you look at the
problems and what ideas for solutions you can imagine in your
mind. Here, Unix provides a continuing inspiration.

Only, like with every old book: when we read it today, we have to
read it within the background of the times back then and transfer
its message to today's times. The older the book, the more transfer
work has to be done, the more knowledgable the then younger and
more distant readers have to be, to really understand it.

Thus, in my oppinion, the Unix philosophy remains a good and very
relevant fit today, although not all of its applications from back
then still are.


meillo