The Unix Philosophy

The power of Unix derives from some amazingly simple principles.

Be hardware-independent, abstract out everything. Everything is a file, even hardware devices.This approach leads to portability and interoperability
Don't build large monolithic applications. Build small, efficient tools and put them together to build what you want.
Keep interoperability in mind when designing tools. No tool should have to know about another. Wherever relevant, tools will take their input from "standard input" and send their output to "standard output". Tools can work together when one's standard output is connected to another's standard input. Neither of them need even know that they are connected!
Applications must work in a multi-user environment.
Applications must work over a network.

Mike Gancarz, the author of The Unix Philosophy, has this to say about what it really is all about:

Small is beautiful
Make each program do one thing well
Build a prototype as soon as possible
Choose portability over efficiency
Store numerical data in flat ASCII files
Use software leverage to your advantage
Use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability
Avoid captive user interfaces
Make every program a filter

He also talks about 10 lesser tenets:

Allow the user to tailor the environment
Make Operating Systems kernels small and lightweight
Use lower case and keep it short
Save trees
Silence is golden
Think parallel
The sum of the parts is greater than the whole
Look for the 90 percent solution
Worse is better
Think hierarchically

I'll recommend the book to anyone who wants to know what Unix really stands for. In fact, I'll recommend it even more strongly to those who hate Unix because of its cryptic and "unfriendly" syntax. They'll come away with a lot more respect for this venerable OS.

The Unix Philosophy, Mike Gancarz, Digital Press, 1995

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page