I think that is sort of the point of the article though (or at least one of the points...). Dealing with stdin/stdout is not uncommon in itself, though it is pr

I think that is sort of the point of the article though (or at least one of the points...). Dealing with stdin/stdout is not uncommon in itself, though it is probably rare in java. Choosing the right tool for the job is kind of important in most aspects of software, so doing a simple script in say python or a few lines of C or whatever is important - it shows a familiarity with the environment, not just the language(s). For example: Whenever I'm dealing with a data processing pipeline I tend to design things as if they would be used from a unix command line. I tell the team to make their classes etc as if they would be wrapped with a simple chunk of code to parse a text stream then serialize to it later. During the course of testing, I almost always will then write those tools to allow simple command line pipes to push test data around. It helps prevent reliance on certain toolsets and certainly helps stop us from conflating bugs in our code with bugs or operator error about a pipeline framework. Later we can go back and more closely integrate with the chosen operating environment, if performance demands it. On the other hand going from a situation where code is written to the environment and migrating to another environment can be very daunting, difficult and error prone.