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That unfortunate remark by McIlroy did more harm to himself that Knuth.

• benj111 3y ago
  Only because you agree with Knuth. Both McIlroy and Knuth have valid points. There's a reason that not all shell scripts are written in the literate style. There's also a good reason why large programs aren't written like shell scripts
  • Jtsummers 3y ago
    > Both McIlroy and Knuth have valid points. Knuth was asked to write a program illustrating his technique of literate programming, which he did. He was not making a "point". He was making an example. Very different things. McIlroy came in and made a point in his review. Other people, presumably illiterate because the source is available and we can know what was written, made it into a competition or debate. Which it was not.
  • Avshalom 3y ago
    There's nothing to "agree" with Knuth here. He wrote it to demonstrate WEB and literate programming, not because he thought it was the best-fit solution to this task.
    • benj111 3y ago
      Ok, but McIlroy was asked to critique it. I suppose you could say that he was asked to critique a literate program, but that seems to me like complaining to Mr Ford, because you asked for a faster horse, and he came back with a car. Literate program is meant to solve a problem. The goal should be finding the best way to solve that problem. Not solving the problem based on some preconceived notion. Perhaps "agree" was the wrong word, but this exchange is remembered for a reason.