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> This would be a great opportunity to avoid the classic Unix mistake of using text files as the lowest common denominator everywhere Text files are just a bin
by lifeisstillgood 6y ago
> This would be a great opportunity to avoid the classic Unix mistake of using text files as the lowest common denominator everywhere
Text files are just a binary format that happens to be easily readable by humans, thus making the hurdle of parsing or generating something to use that format much lower. It usually is this hurdle that is most important to longevity and wide spread success than close to metal sympathies- cf JSON and Protocol Buffers
- ken 6y agoText files are easily readable on a Teletype or a VT100. That was a solid design decision back in the day when you had to say "screen editor" to distinguish them from the ordinary line editors. We didn't have interactive debuggers and inspectors and loggers, so we did everything we could to make systems naturally debuggable. It's like how the Model T engine cover just lifted off with a big door handle. When a technology is new, people using it are expected to be mechanics, too. But today, even amateur wrote-it-over-the-weekend programs have realtime visual editing of rich data. There are countless free libraries for serialization of every format, and GUI (and TUI) libraries for every toolkit/language/style. Developers enjoy using JSON because it lowers the "hurdle of parsing or generating". It's not 1970 any more.