Unix as Literature
Unix as Literature
2006-04-08T21:28:00
I am going MAAAAAD - I have no option but to use an XP machine to disentangle an embedded C/ASM project because the C compiler using which the code was compiled doesn't work on Linux. The code is not getting linked properly and I am running around looking for redefinitions of global variables and stuff like that. I miss the Unix commandline and tools like grep, ctags, find etc .... I feel like a prisoner trapped within the `walls' of a pretty GUI ... there is no network connection between this machine and the other machines ... so I do a build on Windows, run around to my Linux box and do a lot of grepping and finding ... I will soon have to set up a shell and other utilities on this XP box ... I can't imagine how developers can feel comfortable with a stupid GUI! Thomas Scoville has written eloquently about why many of us love the Unix commandline so much - it's is a gem of an article - enjoy! Here is an excerpt from the article:
UNIX programmers express themselves in a rich vocabulary of system utilities and command-line arguments, along with a flexible, varied grammar and syntax. For UNIX enthusiasts, the language becomes second nature. Once, I overheard a conversation in a Palo Alto restaurant: "there used to be a shrimp-and-pasta plate here under ten bucks. Let me see... cat menu | grep shrimp | test -lt $10..." though not syntactically correct (and less-than-scintillating conversation), a diner from an NT shop probably couldn't have expressed himself as casually.