3 ms·

Are we just going to ignore the (rough guess) thousands of lines of code that make up `tr`, `sed`, `uniq`, and other CLI tools? I enjoy hacking together nifty s

• jonahx 8y ago
  That was not implied. A key skill in good programming is choosing tools at the correct level of abstraction for the problem. Here, the higher-level unix tools are clearly the better choice. Saying "that's cheating" because the high-level tools are themselves written with lower-level tools with many LOC is missing the point.
  • darkerside 8y ago
    > Knuth and McIlroy had very different objectives and placed different constraints on themselves, and so their solutions are not directly comparable. But McIlroy’s solution has become famous. Knuth’s solution is remembered, if at all, as the verbose program that McIlroy responded to. He admits they don't compare, but does it anyway. I shouldn't take offense... but for some reason I do!
• linuxftw 8y ago
  Even if you wrote the program in C, you still are using someone else work (libc), not to mention the kernel. Unless you're planning on writing raw assembly, you're using someone else's program/work anyway.
  • majewsky 8y ago
    If you're writing raw assembly, you're still using the chip designer's work. Better start taping your own chips, and god help you if you use a standard toolchain for chip design. ;)
    • sidpatil 8y ago
      "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch you must first invent the universe". --Carl Sagan