4 ms·

Perhaps classic McIlroy: calling Emacs and vi "baroque efflorescences totally out of harmony with the spirit of Unix"

• byuu 10y ago
  They are pretty words, for sure, but I'm not sure what "intricately designed blooming flowers" (baroque efflorescences) is supposed to even mean in this context. It feels like a sesquipedalian circumlocution by an ebullient iconoclast :P
  • catnaroek 10y ago
    One of the meanings of “baroque” is “Extravagant, complex, or bizarre, especially in ornamentation”, or so DuckDuckGo tells me: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=define+baroque https://duckduckgo.com/?q=define+baroque. Also see: https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD340.html https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD03xx/EWD340.... And it's pretty clear that McIlroy used “efflorescence” as a metaphor for “proliferation (of features)”. This usage of “bloom” and its synonyms isn't uncommon.
  • 505 10y ago
    Perhaps he's saying vi users should be using ed, and emacsers TECO. Or maybe just magnetised needles.