The Art of Unix Programming (2003) | Hacker News Reader

The Art of Unix Programming (2003)

catb.org

92 pointswallflower14 comments

Slightly nicer to read version (IMO): https://www.arp242.net/the-art-of-unix-programming/

I think this lays down some great principles for designing good software, worthy of consideration for all modern platforms.

Has anyone done an analysis of various open source packages, rating them according to their relative adherence to the principles outlined in this work?

Is there a worksheet that developers could follow to rate their own packages? A site for them to submit them as periodic updates and for users track their progress over time?

I imagine some core packages would rate very highly (e.g. coreutils), but many others would rank… poorly.

It's not really answering your question. But there are a series of books, the architecture of open source applications (AOSA, two volumes) which could be of interest to you.

https://aosabook.org/en/

I had read the book some time ago. It was interesting.

One passage I remember:

Attitude matters too:

http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s09.html

Also:

http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/ch01s07.html

I wonder the best way to get acquainted with Unix. Anytime I try to look for a good Unix distribution that would work in a VM, I end up having weird quirks (Scroll up being registered as weird keypresses, or CPU Long Mode not enabled).

The OG unices were dead before X86 "long mode". You need that address space? Keypresses seems like something you could find a solution for. As others have mentioned the bsd's are probably the closest that are up to date with our time. For the vintage stuff, you might want qemu to emulate (not virtualize) your platform.

The closest easily available Unix is FreeBSD or NetBSD from a heritage point of view. In fact, both have a direct line back to the original Berkeley Systems Distribution, which itself is derived from Unix version 5.

install it on another partition or on a separate computer if you can. that will work better than on or VM.

More fun on actual hardware, but then there's the hardware support. BSD's may handle it, but better chose the OS before the computer if you like it smooth.

I've installed Solaris 11.4 on a spare ssd for fun this month. It worked right away.

Hey Eric if you're out there, a 20-years-later edition, looking at a few new programs, formats, and protocols would be grand; as would your comments on which of your statements and predictions have held up best and worst over the decades.

Consider sending him an E-mail, he responded when I thanked him for exactly this book a few years ago! There's an "E-mail me" link on the left sidebar at http://www.catb.org/~esr/.

Is he still rich? (Relating to his post after VA linux IPO, https://m.slashdot.org/story/8769)

VA Linux stock dropped quickly after the IPO, and by the time his lockup expired, it was worth much less. I think he mentioned once how much he ultimately made from his stock, but it was no life-changing sum anymore.

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