From: Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com>
To: TUHS main list <tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org>
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Systematic approach to command-line interfaces [ meta issues ]
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2021 14:32:06 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <202107312132.16VLW6VD2410038@fourwinds.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAFH29to=A77KqHo8M9KjY4UW6cTaWqrqEKj8SpTPMtj9JYQpFA@mail.gmail.com>
Richard Salz writes:
> On Sat, Jul 31, 2021 at 3:21 PM Jon Steinhart <jon@fourwinds.com> wrote:
>
> > opinion, it doesn't add value to do something that's already been done
> > but differently; it detracts from value because now there's yet another
> > competing way to do something.
> >
>
> You mean like not using getopt and rolling your own? Shrug.
>
> while ((i = getopt(argc, argv, "xxxxx:xxxx")) != -1)
> switch (i) {
> case ....
> }
> argc -= optind;
> argv += optind;
>
> So I never got getopt(). One of my rules is that I don't use a library
> > in cases where the number of lines of gunk that that it takes to use a
> > library function is >= the number of lines to just write it myself.
>
>
> I don't know, what lines in the above are extra beyond what you write? The
> last two if being generous I suppose.
Well, in my opinion that's not really an accurate representation of using getopt.
I would of course write the #include line, and the table of options, which would
end up being >= the number of lines that it takes me to do this...
while (--argc > 0) {
if (*(++argv)[0] == '-') {
for (p = *argv + 1; *p != '\0'; p++) {
switch (*p) {
Even if it took a few more lines to do it my way, I'm a believer that good coding
style keeps "meatspace locality of reference" in mind. As programmers, we put in
a lot of effort to ensure locality of reference for computers, but then completely
toss it for people who aren't as good as it. So given a choice of a few lines of
code versus having to look something up somewhere else, I choose the few lines of
code.
Being a geezer, I have lots of code lying around from which I can extract working
fragments such as the one above. Writing those few lines of code provides insulation
from supply-side attack vectors bugs in libraries, versioning issues, having to load
debug libraries, and so on.
I realize that this isn't a huge deal by itself; it's a philosophical point. When
I strace any random program that I didn't write I'm astonished by the amount of
library loading that takes place. So any issues are multiplied by n.
Don't get me wrong; I use plenty of libraries. But I tend to use those for stuff
that is so common that there is a benefit from shared libraries (or at least there
was before everything got containerized) and for libraries that do actual hard stuff.
But I don't use libraries for small snippets of code that I could easily write
myself yielding better code clarity for others reading my code.
Jon
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-07-31 21:33 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 72+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-07-31 12:25 [TUHS] Systematic approach to command-line interfaces Michael Siegel
2021-07-31 13:05 ` Dan Halbert
2021-07-31 14:21 ` Adam Thornton
2021-07-31 14:25 ` Adam Thornton
2021-07-31 15:45 ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 16:03 ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 16:06 ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 16:21 ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 16:17 ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 16:30 ` Dan Cross
2021-07-31 15:56 ` Paul Winalski
2021-07-31 16:19 ` Dan Cross
2021-08-01 17:44 ` Chet Ramey
2021-08-01 21:53 ` Dan Cross
2021-08-01 23:21 ` Chet Ramey
2021-08-01 23:36 ` John Cowan
2021-08-01 23:49 ` Larry McVoy
2021-08-02 0:28 ` Larry McVoy
2021-08-01 23:58 ` Dan Cross
2021-08-02 0:29 ` Steve Nickolas
2021-08-02 0:13 ` Andrew Warkentin
2021-08-02 0:18 ` John Cowan
2021-08-02 0:54 ` Andrew Warkentin
2021-08-02 1:04 ` Dan Cross
2021-08-02 1:05 ` Theodore Ts'o
2021-08-02 2:10 ` Andrew Warkentin
2021-08-02 2:32 ` Bakul Shah
2021-08-02 17:33 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2021-09-28 17:46 ` Greg A. Woods
2021-09-28 18:10 ` Larry McVoy
2021-09-29 16:40 ` Greg A. Woods
2021-09-29 16:57 ` Larry McVoy
2021-09-30 17:31 ` Greg A. Woods
2021-09-29 23:10 ` Phil Budne
2021-08-02 17:37 ` Lars Brinkhoff
2021-08-02 18:52 ` Clem Cole
2021-08-02 20:59 ` John Cowan
2021-08-02 21:06 ` Al Kossow
2021-08-02 21:14 ` Clem Cole
2021-08-02 21:13 ` Clem Cole
2021-08-01 16:51 ` Michael Siegel
2021-08-01 17:31 ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 16:41 ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 17:41 ` John Cowan
2021-07-31 17:30 ` Anthony Martin
2021-07-31 17:46 ` John Cowan
2021-07-31 18:56 ` Michael Siegel
2021-07-31 19:41 ` Clem Cole
2021-07-31 21:30 ` Michael Siegel
2021-08-01 17:48 ` Chet Ramey
2021-08-01 19:23 ` Richard Salz
2021-08-01 23:26 ` Chet Ramey
2021-07-31 19:20 ` [TUHS] Systematic approach to command-line interfaces [ meta issues ] Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 21:06 ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 21:32 ` Jon Steinhart [this message]
2021-07-31 21:37 ` Richard Salz
2021-07-31 21:55 ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 22:10 ` Warner Losh
2021-07-31 22:19 ` Larry McVoy
2021-07-31 22:20 ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 23:26 ` Warner Losh
2021-07-31 23:41 ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 22:04 ` Bakul Shah
2021-07-31 22:13 ` Larry McVoy
2021-07-31 22:14 ` Bakul Shah
2021-07-31 22:17 ` Bakul Shah
2021-07-31 22:16 ` Jon Steinhart
2021-07-31 22:20 ` Bakul Shah
2021-08-01 18:17 Douglas McIlroy
2021-08-01 19:48 ` arnold
2021-08-01 21:30 ` John Cowan
2021-08-02 12:11 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
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