On 11.04.16 11:11, Derek Martin wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 10:13:06PM +1000, Erik Christiansen wrote:
> > In the latter half of several decades of software development, I took to
> > heart "Unix _is_ the IDE". Similarly, there's no need for mutt to do
> > more than be a good MUA, as perfectly good search capability pre-exists.
>
> But you must see the flaw with this approach: It requires every user
> to make efforts to integrate their own solution for searching for
> their mail--a task that seems (to me) very obviously part of what
> any typical user would want to do, as part of handling their mail. As
> such, doesn't it make sense that the MUA have good searching
> capabilities built in? Doing so saves a MASSIVE amount of work, in
> man-hours.
Whether that's an attempt at humour, or just late for April 1, eludes
me. The flaw with the postulating paragraph is that there is no need
for integration of "own solution for searching". That is already
provided by Unix - for free, as is. As a consequence, the theory that
there might be "a MASSIVE amount of work" is purest fantasy. I have done
_no_ substantial work, as 'perfectly good search capability pre-exists'.
> This is where the Unix Philosophy falls down, IMO. And don't get me
> wrong--I'm a fan. But no solution is the right solution for every
> problem.
Compatible cooperating utilities always beat competing and often
conflicting monoliths, in my several decades of experience. The
flexibility of combining coherent capabilities to construct an
application-specific solution cannot be matched by a user-restricting
monolith with a limited set of fixed actions.
Your own words make that case for me. No monolith "is the right solution
for every problem." That is why a swarm of well-understood smaller
combinable utilities is always more flexible, and better able to handle
a large variety of problems.
The really big benefit of the Unix approach is that the same utility
know-how can be applied to every problem, as it is only the mix of
utilities used, and their parameters, which vary. With the monolithic
approach, the user has to learn a different set of levers to wrangle for
every monolith allowed on his system. That can be a massive amount of
trial-and-error climbing of learning curve - a completely unnecessary
waste of time.
Erik
--
The ultimate barrier is one's viewpoint.
- Terry Pratchett, "The Dark Side of the Sun"
