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One of the core problems of Unix is this focus on textual streams. Every configuration file, every proc-style file, every interchange format ends up with its o
by white-flame 11y ago
One of the core problems of Unix is this focus on textual streams.
Every configuration file, every proc-style file, every interchange format ends up with its own unique take on what format is easiest for it to present/consume. Every program has its own text parser & generator that generally is the minimum bar to deal with the text that it assumes.
And at some point, when taking a bird's eye view at all of this, it just turns into an unpredictable and insecure mess.
- bch 11y ago> One of the core problems of Unix is this focus on textual streams. > ...every proc-style file You're conflating Linux with UNIX, wrt what /proc emits[0], or if it's even the interface to do what you think you want[1]. [0] https://illumos.org/man/4/proc https://illumos.org/man/4/proc [1] /proc/mounts vs getmntinfo(3)[2] [2] https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=getmntinfo https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=getmntinfo
- white-flame 11y agoText-based virtual files also predominantly feature in the Plan9 model, if I'm reading it correctly, which is why I bring it up.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- doomrobo 11y agoI think this is a very valid point and I've only heard it said once before in an HN discussion about the merits of Powershell. The idea of "do one thing and do it well" requires that things can communicate relatively easily, which is certainly not always the case, especially with more complex data. I think Powershell deals with this by allowing for (IIRC XML-encoded) intermediate representations of data to be passed through pipelines.