At first I thought perhaps my sarcasm detector (now _there's_ a real useful invention!) was broken, but apparently this guy is serious.
To put a new twist on the old aphorism: Those who do not understand the "UNIX Hater's Handbook" are doomed to reinvent it poorly. (Or maybe plagiarize it poorly, I can't tell.) If you haven't read it, it's worth taking a look at. Very much tongue-in-cheek, of course, and due to its age, not entirely correct now (being written prior to the rise of Linux and *BSD). If nothing else, read dmr's anti-foreword and the appendix where Thompson, Kernhigan, and Ritchie "admit" UNIX and C were April Fool's pranks. Nick's "taking himself seriously" bit and subsequent deconstruction reminded me of this publication (I mean this as a compliment, really!). I still keep the K&R C book on my shelf (long live 1TBS!). It's the 2nd ed. though... being young enough to learn C as ANSI C, I find the earlier style of code positively icky, and I think the "ansify" commits in the CVS logs agree with me. :-) Speaking of going off-topic... -Andrew
