3 ms·

I'd suggest reading http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ to better understand why UNIX is the way that it i

• lhnz 10y ago
  I've read it before. So I know that: > Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface But I also think that: > To build it out of simple parts connected by well-defined interfaces. Many text representations are vastly different, and neither simple or well-defined.
  • Aneurysm9_ 10y ago
    The interface is not necessarily the content of the message conveyed by the interface. Lines of text std(in|out) is a well-defined interface. Some programs may go further and specify the format of messages passed on that interface. https://github.com/synacor/dtk https://github.com/synacor/dtk is one such system that specifies (for most of its commands) tab-delimited records as the message format. It interfaces well with other elements of the UNIX ecosystem, however, because its interface is simply lines of text on std(in|out).