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Contents

    The UNIX Philosophy

     Gancarz 95,Mike Gancarz, The UNIX Philosophy, Digital Press, Newton, MA 1995, 151 pp., $19.95, ISBN 1-55558-123-4

    Mike Gancarz summarizes his philosophy as a series of rules or tenets. Here is a quick list with some notes.

    Nine Main Tenets

  1. (1): Small is beautiful.
      A Small thing is easier to produce and use. It can be combined with other small things in many ways to do special things.
  2. (2): Make each program do one thing well.
      For example an editor should not contain code to handle wild cards in file names. A shell should not contain an editor. Avoid featuritis and code bloat.
  3. (3): Build a prototype as soon as possible.
      Within UNIX most work is done by starting with a simple semi-functional, special case program that can be used to find out what works. This is generalized until it does slightly more than you want it to do.
  4. (4): Choose portability over efficiency.
      You can always port a portable solution to a faster CPU! Besides, you will get more value for your work if the code is still in use on all future systems that you use, than if it is super-fast and only works on the system you have today.
  5. (5): Store numerical data in flat ASCII files.
      ASCII data is portable, EMailable, editable, processable, etc. Flat files don't have a complex structure that needs lots of parsing. Examples: /etc/passwd, /etc/group, the output of 'last', the output of 'ls -lrt', and so on. A flat file is a file where each line can be treated in much the same way as the others. For example, a C program has a structure but a list of function calls with names and line numbers is flat.
  6. (6): Use software leverage to your advantage.
      By using a UNIX program you can make one line of code call up 5000 lines of debugged code.
  7. (7): Use Shell scripts to increase leverage and portability.
      A shell script combines small ready-made components in new ways. Combining 'ps', 'grep', 'awk', and 'sh' into a script to kill zombies on 'delphi' effectively reused at least 10K Lines Of Code from these programs. A shell script can be interpreted by the same shell on a different system - even one that does not run UNIX!
  8. (8): Avoid Captive User Interfaces.
      The user should not be held hostage by a program and not given access to all the other tools that lie around. Further the user shouldn't be offered a choice from a small set of options when they may want to do anything. The user has a right to do what they want, not what the programmer chooses to put in a set of menus or prompts!

      Corollary: If the user is a captive, give the user a chance to escape. Example: vi has ':!ksh', and 'lynx' has '!', and mailx has '!' and '~!'.

  9. (9): Make every program a filter.
      A filter is a program that reads an ASCII file and produces an ASCII file having done something to it. Filters can be connected to the user, to files, and to each other.

    Ten Lesser Tenets
  10. (10): Allow the User to Tailor the Environment.

  11. (11): Make OS Kernels Small and Lightweight

  12. (12): Use lower-case and keep it short
      An engrained tradition. BUT CAPITAL ARE HARDER TO READ THAN LOWERCASE anyway.
  13. (13): Save Trees
      Avoid printing data out. Printed data is dead data! Instead use tools and browsers and filters to explore the data online.
  14. (14): Silence is Golden
      Do nothing gracefully. Do not output "list empty" as an alternative to a list of elements. If you do, it becomes difficult for a filter to distinguish a one line list from an empty list symbolysed by a list. If used interactively perhaps output a short header on all lists.
  15. (15): Think Parallel
      Look for ways to break down tasks that can run in parallel and pass data from one to another. Look for Pipes. Also look for client server solutions with a lockable data base connecting them - 'mail' for example.
  16. (16): The Sum of the parts is greater than the whole.
      If you have 4 filters: a,b,c,d. Then you have the following combinations: a|a, a|b, a|c, a|d, b|a, b|b, ..., d|d. From 4 pieces: 16 combinations in pairs. Then you have the 64 combinations of three of them and so on.
  17. (17): Look for the 90% Solution
      A script that does 90% of the job and lets your intelligence do the last 10% today is often better than a 100% solution next year.
  18. (18): Worse is Better
      It is better to be cheap and effective than expensive and high quality. Think: ball point pens, disposable lighters, PC clones, and MicroSoft Software.
  19. (19): Think Hierarchically

    An Implicit Assumption

     Mike does not mention the following, but assumes it through-out:
  20. (20): Connect the programmer to the problem and leave him/her alone.

    . . . . . . . . . ( end of section The UNIX Philosophy) <<Contents | Index>>

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