The rule of composition is an important counterpoint to the rule of diversity. Unix's most important feature is treating everything as a file. That interface al

The rule of composition is an important counterpoint to the rule of diversity. Unix's most important feature is treating everything as a file. That interface allows a lot of freedom in composition, but every process has to conform to exactly the same interface. Perhaps not surprisingly, TCP's stream-based interface has also allowed a great deal of freedom in composition in networks.