[deleted]
Do One Thing
41–50 of 136 posts
Re: Do One Thing
#42I would like to propose a "cloud" addendum to Zawinski's law, which states that "Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can". My addendum is: "Every cloud app expands to the point where it can host group chat. Those apps which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can." I think it's also possible that I may have to augment the ad…
I suggest it is package manager. Everything has it's own little little plugin management tools, for retrieving, installing etc.
Re: Do One Thing
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why use a web app to take notes when one has vi or emacs?
Because it's really convenient to be able to make a note on your phone or tablet, then access it and make additional post-meeting notes shortly thereafter, on a laptop, all in the same interface (so you have the same features, or at least a set of common features). That's just one, assuming you never want formatting, tables, pictures, etc.
Maybe we need some sort of unix on the web.
Re: Do One Thing
#44Then along came systemd....
Re: Do One Thing
#45On the 'do one thing and do it well' issue, there seem to be two spectrums: 1. suitability of a tool to multiple tasks 2. number of features a tool has This makes for sort of a field with four quadrants: 1. simple but flexible tools 2. complex and featureful tools 3. specialized but simple tools, 4. highly specialized and highly featureful tools So take a tool like grep and it clearly belongs in the first quadrant. Y…
In this context... "specialized" = Do one thing "flexible" = and do it well. That said, the key ingredient of the Unix philosophy that is missing isn't specialised, flexible tools, it's composability of those tools. Imagine if you couldn't pipe grep output to another program, wouldn't it be a lot less useful? I'd say so. There are ways we can get around this, but they would require a fair amount of development time.…
How does flexible mean do it well?
"Do it well" is so vague of a saying that it really could mean any of those things, whether it be flexibility, or simplicity, or etc.
Re: Do One Thing
#46I am a great fan of the Unix philosophy and can sympathize with the author and his points, but I really don't know how realistic the whole "make the Internet a new Unix"-scheme is.
As others have pointed out, there are great practical difficulties in integrating different web services. Unix has pipes built into the core of the OS - anything analogous would have to be "bolted on" to the Internet, and thus probably turn out to be not as powerful or simple to use. And how about the UI and user friendliness? On Unix, every program has more or less the same UI - a couple of lines of text on a black background. The Internet? Everybody has a different fancy graphic layout. If you can do everything within the same "walled garden", that reduces confusion on this count.
For these (and other reasons, such as the aforementioned capitalism), I do not think that the mainstream Internet is ever going to behave the way the author envisions. What I could imagine, however, is a sort of parallel Internet that displays this property to some extent - a range of services explicitly targeting technical users (who are more likely to value the "do one thing well" approach and less likely to care if the GUI isn't quite as snazzy). These services would never grow big, but they could build up a loyal following. Kind of like HN, really...
Re: Do One Thing
#47Evernote never even did the one thing well. I would add an item to a list on my computer, and then later add another one on my phone, and the next day both sources would be missing one of the edits.
Re: Do One Thing
#48> I’ve been lamenting the demise of the Unix philosophy: tools should do one thing, and do it well.
1983 was a while ago: http://harmful.cat-v.org/cat-v/. That's a long time to lament something.
Re: Do One Thing
#49check out the ultimate networking site for network marketers
http://www.netwopoly.com/
Re: Do One Thing
#50I am a great fan of the Unix philosophy and can sympathize with the author and his points, but I really don't know how realistic the whole "make the Internet a new Unix"-scheme is. As others have pointed out, there are great practical difficulties in integrating different web services. Unix has pipes built into the core of the OS - anything analogous would have to be "bolted on" to the Internet, and thus probably tur…
The internet already has a very simple interoperable protocol, HTTP. There is nothing to bolt on really since the pipe is just a channel for text and sockets on port 80 can just as easily act as those channel.