[Tutor] look back comprehensively

[Mats Wichmann]

On 12/24/18 5:45 PM, Avi Gross wrote:


> As for the UNIX tools, one nice thing about them was using them in a
> pipeline where each step made some modification and often that merely
> allowed the next step to modify that. The solution did not depend on one
> tool doing everything.

I know we're wondering off topic here, but I miss the days when this
philosophy was more prevalent - "do one thing well" and be prepared to
pass your results on in a way that a different tool could potentially
consume, doing its one thing well, and so on if needed.  Of course
equivalents of those old UNIX tools are still with us, mostly thanks to
the GNU umbrella of projects, but so many current tools have grown so
many capabilities they no longer can interact with with other tools in
any sane way.  "pipes and filters" seems destined to be constrained to
the dustbin of tech history.

I'll shut up now...