🚀 go-pugleaf

Submitted-by: brnstnd@KRAMDEN.ACF.NYU.EDU (D. J. Bernstein)

Markus Kuhn writes:
>   - In this way, every UNIX tool (cc, cat, ...) can easily determine,
>     how the file has to be interpreted,

Interfaces should be _small_. By definition a small interface has simple
semantics. Simple semantics leave no room for bugs. A small interface is
programmer-friendly.

Version 7 UNIX had small interfaces. The kernel's system call interface
was small: just a few dozen calls with semantics defined in a few pages.
Each utility's external interface was small: there were almost no
conventions weighing things down. Even the internal interfaces were
small: most tools used mere pages of code.

File types infect practically every program on the system. Witness VMS.
Every program's semantics has to include its treatment of file types.
This means that the total interface size of the system becomes much,
much, much larger.

Need I say more?

Followups to alt.religion.computers.

---Dan

[ I did set Followups to alt.religion.computers, but only because Dan
  wanted it. -- mod ]

Volume-Number: Volume 29, Number 9