Unix Koans | Hacker News Reader

Unix Koans

prirai.github.io

203 pointsnimbius42 comments

Real URL: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/

I love these. Maybe someone can help me locate a hacker koan I once read, but can't seem to find anywhere... it was a particularly humorous dig at java-style object oriented programming in a corporate environment; the novice spends their day lugging an object all through the corporation, peeling off layer after layer, only to find an empty method returning nothing.

Somehow I can't find it, or the collection it was in, anywhere... maybe this rings a bell with anyone.

Somewhere in here I think

http://thecodelesscode.com/contents

Thanks! Many more forgotten gems in there, too..!

This one? http://www.thecodelesscode.com/case/110

Oh yes, that's the one! Thank you so much!

Loved it. Thanks for finding this and to OP for sending you on its trail :-)

Seems similar to this: http://www.mit.edu/~xela/tao.html

Wish there was a hard copy. Would make a great goofy gift for coworkers.

>> Wish there was a hard copy.

Hard copy:

https://www.amazon.com/UNIX-Programming-Addison-Wesley-Profe...

Soft copy:

http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/

http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/

The original Unix koans are found in Appendix D: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/unix_koans.html

Additional Unix koans were added (and removed) over time: http://catb.org/~esr/writings/unix-koans/

Hard copy of that page has ISBN 0-931137-07-1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Programming

> “And how many hours would you require to implement and debug that C program?” asked Nubi.

How about "How many hours would you require to write the shell script so that it handles all allowed file names appropriately?". As far as I am concerned the classes of errors are certainly different, but shell scripts have their own pitfalls.

Just yesterday I came across a one-liner that didn't work as soon as the filename had a space in the filename.

Then you are not using enough quotes in your shell scripts.

Most people know about quotes to handle spaces. The real trick is to handle file names which start with a hyphen.

(And if you really want to level up, write your scripts to handle file names with embedded newlines.)

Yeah… I just pull up Finder and delete it there.

the script or the input file? :)

If you go to that website and then back to hn, the hn background looks blue.

So it does! Neat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterimage

I don't get Master Foo Discourses on the Two Paths. "Three pounds of VAX!" Anyone?

I know the traditional Unix worse-is-better philosophy holds simplicity of implementation as a higher goal than consistency of interface. I don't know how that ties into tigers and VAXen, though.

Restating the koan: The UNIX way values both simplicity of implementation and correct behaviour in all circumstances. These values are often in tension. You must not follow these values blindly. They apply only at the right time.

It comes from a famous koan. Google "three pounds of flax".

The original koan has a monk asking "What is Buddha?" With the Master's response being "This flax weighs 3 pounds", referring to the flax in his garment. The koan is intended to point out the practical nature of the Buddhist religion. Buddha to the master is all the things he does as part of his worship, and there are practical aspects to that worship such as buying 3 lb of flax. "Buddha is as Buddha does".

Unix nature being "3 lb of VAX", the most popular hardware running Unix at the time, suggests that practicality is more important than idealistic purism. Tigers like to stay on the ground but sometimes they jump in the air so saying "tigers are creatures of the ground" have exceptions that make sense. A similar idea applies to eagles. These exceptions are part of nature.

Exceptions to the rule in favor of practicality are okay and still make sense. These exceptions are still part of Unix nature.

I read a similarly themed koan recently where the novice wants to do various things with the shell, and the master tells him that's not what shell is for, and at the end the novice proposes something in exasperation which is essentially to use pipes to combine a bunch of commands, and the master say yes, use shell for that. I may be getting parts of it wrong. Csn anyone point me to this one? I can't find it.

https://youtu.be/lE4UXdJSJM4

That was a great read. Very fun. And wise.

Sounds very wise.

is < this | the > way

Nice!

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