From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id b360cb0e for ; Tue, 18 Feb 2020 00:54:27 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id B78E39B935; Tue, 18 Feb 2020 10:54:26 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A568B9B92D; Tue, 18 Feb 2020 10:54:12 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 5D87C9B92D; Tue, 18 Feb 2020 10:54:10 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 130E49B92B for ; Tue, 18 Feb 2020 10:54:10 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 8A40F35E141; Mon, 17 Feb 2020 16:54:09 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 16:54:09 -0800 From: Larry McVoy To: Jon Steinhart Message-ID: <20200218005409.GD4767@mcvoy.com> References: <202002171520.01HFKqKi026749@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> <4d252035b323b7583c5760c952d1982c@firemail.de> <202002171839.01HId8FT1358073@darkstar.fourwinds.com> <202002180017.01I0HI0I1415945@darkstar.fourwinds.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <202002180017.01I0HI0I1415945@darkstar.fourwinds.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Subject: Re: [TUHS] man Macro Package and pdfmark X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: The Eunuchs Hysterical Society Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 04:17:18PM -0800, Jon Steinhart wrote: > Richard Salz writes: > > > > > 'The problem is that the ecosystem has been fragmented by people doing > > their "documentation" in their preferred formats instead of in a common > > (man) format. > > > > Damn those unauthorized developers. How dare they write code that doesn't > > meet standards. > > > > Get off my lawn. > > The relevant TUHS part of it that maybe some folks here can speak to is how > did UNIX remain so cohesive for so long? How were decisions made? Of course, > this started to fall apart with System III and such as things got more clunky. I think that part of it was that machines were small, both in memory and in disk. I did a huge programming project because I wanted to compress the pathalias output; I had 20 users on a 40MB disk. So big == evil. The other thing, if we're talking about kernels, uniprocessor kernels were pretty simple to understand compared to SMP, and NUMA, and the PCI devices tree and a million other things that modern computers had. v6 was documented in the lion book, you could read it all and understand it in maybe a week or two? That's not a thing any more. > I've probably said this before, but today I see way too much "string theory > programming". What I mean by that is the "I have an idea so I'll just start > my own universe that doesn't play well with others rather than extending the > existing ecosystem" model. That's my beef with texinfo; there was already > an existing functional system and rather than making some improvements a new > incompatible universe was created. Yeah, you need a dictator that says that's not OK.