Mercurial > docs > unix-phil
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author | meillo@marmaro.de |
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date | Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:56:48 +0100 |
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1 | 22 .\"---------------------------------------- |
0 | 23 .TL |
6 | 24 Why the Unix Philosophy still matters |
0 | 25 .AU |
26 markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de> | |
27 .AB | |
1 | 28 .ti \n(.iu |
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29 This paper discusses the importance of the Unix Philosophy in software design. |
0 | 30 Today, few software designers are aware of these concepts, |
3 | 31 and thus most modern software is limited and does not make use of software leverage. |
0 | 32 Knowing and following the tenets of the Unix Philosophy makes software more valuable. |
33 .AE | |
34 | |
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35 .\".if t .2C |
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36 |
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37 .FS |
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38 .ps -1 |
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39 This paper was prepared for the seminar ``Software Analysis'' at University Ulm. |
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40 Mentor was professor Schweiggert. 2010-02-05 |
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41 .br |
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42 You may get this document from my website |
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43 .CW \s-1http://marmaro.de/docs |
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44 .FE |
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45 |
0 | 46 .NH 1 |
47 Introduction | |
48 .LP | |
49 Building a software is a process from an idea of the purpose of the software | |
3 | 50 to its release. |
0 | 51 No matter \fIhow\fP the process is run, two things are common: |
52 the initial idea and the release. | |
9 | 53 The process in between can be of any shape. |
54 The the maintenance work after the release is ignored for the moment. | |
1 | 55 .PP |
0 | 56 The process of building splits mainly in two parts: |
57 the planning of what and how to build, and implementing the plan by writing code. | |
3 | 58 This paper focuses on the planning part \(en the designing of the software. |
59 .PP | |
60 Software design is the plan of how the internals and externals of the software should look like, | |
61 based on the requirements. | |
9 | 62 This paper discusses the recommendations of the Unix Philosophy about software design. |
3 | 63 .PP |
64 The here discussed ideas can get applied by any development process. | |
9 | 65 The Unix Philosophy does recommend how the software development process should look like, |
3 | 66 but this shall not be of matter here. |
0 | 67 Similar, the question of how to write the code is out of focus. |
1 | 68 .PP |
3 | 69 The name ``Unix Philosophy'' was already mentioned several times, but it was not explained yet. |
1 | 70 The Unix Philosophy is the essence of how the Unix operating system and its toolchest was designed. |
3 | 71 It is no limited set of rules, but what people see to be common to typical Unix software. |
1 | 72 Several people stated their view on the Unix Philosophy. |
73 Best known are: | |
74 .IP \(bu | |
75 Doug McIlroy's summary: ``Write programs that do one thing and do it well.'' | |
76 .[ | |
77 %A M. D. McIlroy | |
78 %A E. N. Pinson | |
79 %A B. A. Taque | |
80 %T UNIX Time-Sharing System Forward | |
81 %J The Bell System Technical Journal | |
82 %D 1978 | |
83 %V 57 | |
84 %N 6 | |
85 %P 1902 | |
86 .] | |
87 .IP \(bu | |
88 Mike Gancarz' book ``The UNIX Philosophy''. | |
89 .[ | |
90 %A Mike Gancarz | |
91 %T The UNIX Philosophy | |
92 %D 1995 | |
93 %I Digital Press | |
94 .] | |
95 .IP \(bu | |
96 Eric S. Raymond's book ``The Art of UNIX Programming''. | |
97 .[ | |
98 %A Eric S. Raymond | |
99 %T The Art of UNIX Programming | |
100 %D 2003 | |
101 %I Addison-Wesley | |
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102 %O .CW \s-1http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ |
1 | 103 .] |
0 | 104 .LP |
1 | 105 These different views on the Unix Philosophy have much in common. |
3 | 106 Especially, the main concepts are similar for all of them. |
1 | 107 But there are also points on which they differ. |
108 This only underlines what the Unix Philosophy is: | |
109 A retrospective view on the main concepts of Unix software; | |
9 | 110 especially those that were successful and unique to Unix. |
6 | 111 .\" really? |
1 | 112 .PP |
113 Before we will have a look at concrete concepts, | |
114 we discuss why software design is important | |
115 and what problems bad design introduces. | |
0 | 116 |
117 | |
118 .NH 1 | |
6 | 119 Importance of software design in general |
0 | 120 .LP |
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121 Why should we design software at all? |
6 | 122 It is general knowledge, that even a bad plan is better than no plan. |
123 Ignoring software design is programming without a plan. | |
124 This will lead pretty sure to horrible results. | |
125 .PP | |
126 The design of a software is its internal and external shape. | |
127 The design talked about here has nothing to do with visual appearance. | |
128 If we see a program as a car, then its color is of no matter. | |
129 Its design would be the car's size, its shape, the number and position of doors, | |
130 the ratio of passenger and cargo transport, and so forth. | |
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131 .PP |
6 | 132 A software's design is about quality properties. |
133 Each of the cars may be able to drive from A to B, | |
134 but it depends on its properties whether it is a good car for passenger transport or not. | |
135 It also depends on its properties if it is a good choice for a rough mountain area. | |
136 .PP | |
137 Requirements to a software are twofold: functional and non-functional. | |
138 Functional requirements are easier to define and to verify. | |
139 They are directly the software's functions. | |
140 Functional requirements are the reason why software gets written. | |
141 Someone has a problem and needs a tool to solve it. | |
142 Being able to solve the problem is the main functional requirement. | |
143 It is the driving force behind all programming effort. | |
144 .PP | |
145 On the other hand, there are also non-functional requirements. | |
146 They are called \fIquality\fP requirements, too. | |
147 The quality of a software is about properties that are not directly related to | |
148 the software's basic functions. | |
149 Quality aspects are about the properties that are overlooked at first sight. | |
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150 .PP |
6 | 151 Quality is of few matter when the software gets initially built, |
9 | 152 but it will be of matter in usage and maintenance of the software. |
6 | 153 A short-sighted might see in developing a software mainly building something up. |
154 Reality shows, that building the software the first time is only a small amount | |
155 of the overall work. | |
9 | 156 Bug fixing, extending, rebuilding of parts \(en short: maintenance work \(en |
6 | 157 does soon take over the major part of the time spent on a software. |
158 Not to forget the usage of the software. | |
159 These processes are highly influenced by the software's quality. | |
160 Thus, quality should never be neglected. | |
161 The problem is that you hardly ``stumble over'' bad quality during the first build, | |
162 but this is the time when you should care about good quality most. | |
163 .PP | |
164 Software design is not about the basic function of a software; | |
165 this requirement will get satisfied anyway, as it is the main driving force behind the development. | |
166 Software design is about quality aspects of the software. | |
167 Good design will lead to good quality, bad design to bad quality. | |
168 The primary functions of the software will be affected modestly by bad quality, | |
169 but good quality can provide a lot of additional gain from the software, | |
170 even at places where one never expected it. | |
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171 .PP |
6 | 172 The ISO/IEC 9126-1 standard, part 1, |
173 .[ | |
9 | 174 %I International Organization for Standardization |
6 | 175 %T ISO Standard 9126: Software Engineering \(en Product Quality, part 1 |
176 %C Geneve | |
177 %D 2001 | |
178 .] | |
179 defines the quality model as consisting out of: | |
180 .IP \(bu | |
181 .I Functionality | |
182 (suitability, accuracy, inter\%operability, security) | |
183 .IP \(bu | |
184 .I Reliability | |
185 (maturity, fault tolerance, recoverability) | |
186 .IP \(bu | |
187 .I Usability | |
188 (understandability, learnability, operability, attractiveness) | |
189 .IP \(bu | |
190 .I Efficiency | |
9 | 191 (time behavior, resource utilization) |
6 | 192 .IP \(bu |
193 .I Maintainability | |
23 | 194 (analyzability, changeability, stability, testability) |
6 | 195 .IP \(bu |
196 .I Portability | |
197 (adaptability, installability, co-existence, replaceability) | |
198 .LP | |
199 These goals are parts of a software's design. | |
200 Good design can give these properties to a software, | |
201 bad designed software will miss them. | |
7 | 202 .PP |
203 One further goal of software design is consistency. | |
204 Consistency eases understanding, working on, and using things. | |
205 Consistent internals and consistent interfaces to the outside can be provided by good design. | |
206 .PP | |
207 We should design software because good design avoids many problems during a software's lifetime. | |
208 And we should design software because good design can offer much gain, | |
209 that can be unrelated to the software main intend. | |
210 Indeed, we should spend much effort into good design to make the software more valuable. | |
211 The Unix Philosophy shows how to design software well. | |
212 It offers guidelines to achieve good quality and high gain for the effort spent. | |
0 | 213 |
214 | |
215 .NH 1 | |
216 The Unix Philosophy | |
4 | 217 .LP |
218 The origins of the Unix Philosophy were already introduced. | |
8 | 219 This chapter explains the philosophy, oriented on Gancarz, |
220 and shows concrete examples of its application. | |
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221 |
16 | 222 .NH 2 |
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223 Pipes |
0 | 224 .LP |
4 | 225 Following are some examples to demonstrate how applied Unix Philosophy feels like. |
226 Knowledge of using the Unix shell is assumed. | |
227 .PP | |
228 Counting the number of files in the current directory: | |
9 | 229 .DS I 2n |
4 | 230 .CW |
9 | 231 .ps -1 |
4 | 232 ls | wc -l |
233 .DE | |
234 The | |
235 .CW ls | |
236 command lists all files in the current directory, one per line, | |
237 and | |
238 .CW "wc -l | |
8 | 239 counts the number of lines. |
4 | 240 .PP |
8 | 241 Counting the number of files that do not contain ``foo'' in their name: |
9 | 242 .DS I 2n |
4 | 243 .CW |
9 | 244 .ps -1 |
4 | 245 ls | grep -v foo | wc -l |
246 .DE | |
247 Here, the list of files is filtered by | |
248 .CW grep | |
249 to remove all that contain ``foo''. | |
250 The rest is the same as in the previous example. | |
251 .PP | |
252 Finding the five largest entries in the current directory. | |
9 | 253 .DS I 2n |
4 | 254 .CW |
9 | 255 .ps -1 |
4 | 256 du -s * | sort -nr | sed 5q |
257 .DE | |
258 .CW "du -s * | |
259 returns the recursively summed sizes of all files | |
8 | 260 \(en no matter if they are regular files or directories. |
4 | 261 .CW "sort -nr |
262 sorts the list numerically in reverse order. | |
263 Finally, | |
264 .CW "sed 5q | |
265 quits after it has printed the fifth line. | |
266 .PP | |
267 The presented command lines are examples of what Unix people would use | |
268 to get the desired output. | |
269 There are also other ways to get the same output. | |
270 It's a user's decision which way to go. | |
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271 .PP |
8 | 272 The examples show that many tasks on a Unix system |
4 | 273 are accomplished by combining several small programs. |
274 The connection between the single programs is denoted by the pipe operator `|'. | |
275 .PP | |
276 Pipes, and their extensive and easy use, are one of the great | |
277 achievements of the Unix system. | |
278 Pipes between programs have been possible in earlier operating systems, | |
279 but it has never been a so central part of the concept. | |
280 When, in the early seventies, Doug McIlroy introduced pipes for the | |
281 Unix system, | |
282 ``it was this concept and notation for linking several programs together | |
283 that transformed Unix from a basic file-sharing system to an entirely new way of computing.'' | |
284 .[ | |
285 %T Unix: An Oral History | |
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286 %O .CW \s-1http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/frs122/unixhist/finalhis.htm |
4 | 287 .] |
288 .PP | |
289 Being able to specify pipelines in an easy way is, | |
290 however, not enough by itself. | |
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291 It is only one half. |
4 | 292 The other is the design of the programs that are used in the pipeline. |
8 | 293 They have to interfaces that allows them to be used in such a way. |
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294 |
16 | 295 .NH 2 |
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296 Interface design |
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297 .LP |
11 | 298 Unix is, first of all, simple \(en Everything is a file. |
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299 Files are sequences of bytes, without any special structure. |
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300 Programs should be filters, which read a stream of bytes from ``standard input'' (stdin) |
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301 and write a stream of bytes to ``standard output'' (stdout). |
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302 .PP |
8 | 303 If the files \fIare\fP sequences of bytes, |
304 and the programs \fIare\fP filters on byte streams, | |
11 | 305 then there is exactly one standardized data interface. |
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306 Thus it is possible to combine them in any desired way. |
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307 .PP |
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308 Even a handful of small programs will yield a large set of combinations, |
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309 and thus a large set of different functions. |
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310 This is leverage! |
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311 If the programs are orthogonal to each other \(en the best case \(en |
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312 then the set of different functions is greatest. |
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313 .PP |
11 | 314 Programs might also have a separate control interface, |
315 besides their data interface. | |
316 The control interface is often called ``user interface'', | |
317 because it is usually designed to be used by humans. | |
318 The Unix Philosophy discourages to assume the user to be human. | |
319 Interactive use of software is slow use of software, | |
320 because the program waits for user input most of the time. | |
321 Interactive software requires the user to be in front of the computer | |
322 all the time. | |
323 Interactive software occupy the user's attention while they are running. | |
324 .PP | |
325 Now we come back to the idea of using several small programs, combined, | |
326 to have a more specific function. | |
327 If these single tools would all be interactive, | |
328 how would the user control them? | |
329 It is not only a problem to control several programs at once if they run at the same time, | |
330 it also very inefficient to have to control each of the single programs | |
331 that are intended to work as one large program. | |
332 Hence, the Unix Philosophy discourages programs to demand interactive use. | |
333 The behavior of programs should be defined at invocation. | |
334 This is done by specifying arguments (``command line switches'') to the program call. | |
335 Gancarz discusses this topic as ``avoid captive user interfaces''. | |
336 .[ | |
337 %A Mike Gancarz | |
338 %T The UNIX Philosophy | |
339 %I Digital Press | |
340 %D 1995 | |
341 %P 88 ff. | |
342 .] | |
343 .PP | |
344 Non-interactive use is, during development, also an advantage for testing. | |
345 Testing of interactive programs is much more complicated, | |
346 than testing of non-interactive programs. | |
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347 |
16 | 348 .NH 2 |
8 | 349 The toolchest approach |
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350 .LP |
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351 A toolchest is a set of tools. |
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352 Instead of having one big tool for all tasks, one has many small tools, |
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353 each for one task. |
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354 Difficult tasks are solved by combining several of the small, simple tools. |
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355 .PP |
11 | 356 The Unix toolchest \fIis\fP a set of small, (mostly) non-interactive programs |
357 that are filters on byte streams. | |
358 They are, to a large extend, unrelated in their function. | |
359 Hence, the Unix toolchest provides a large set of functions | |
360 that can be accessed by combining the programs in the desired way. | |
361 .PP | |
362 There are also advantages for developing small toolchest programs. | |
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363 It is easier and less error-prone to write small programs. |
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364 It is also easier and less error-prone to write a large set of small programs, |
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365 than to write one large program with all the functionality included. |
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366 If the small programs are combinable, then they offer even a larger set |
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367 of functions than the single large program. |
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368 Hence, one gets two advantages out of writing small, combinable programs. |
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369 .PP |
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370 There are two drawbacks of the toolchest approach. |
8 | 371 First, one simple, standardized, unidirectional interface has to be sufficient. |
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372 If one feels the need for more ``logic'' than a stream of bytes, |
8 | 373 then a different approach might be of need. |
13 | 374 But it is also possible, that he just can not imagine a design where |
8 | 375 a stream of bytes is sufficient. |
376 By becoming more familiar with the ``Unix style of thinking'', | |
377 developers will more often and easier find simple designs where | |
378 a stream of bytes is a sufficient interface. | |
379 .PP | |
380 The second drawback of a toolchest affects the users. | |
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381 A toolchest is often more difficult to use for novices. |
9 | 382 It is necessary to become familiar with each of the tools, |
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383 to be able to use the right one in a given situation. |
9 | 384 Additionally, one needs to combine the tools in a senseful way on its own. |
385 This is like a sharp knife \(en it is a powerful tool in the hand of a master, | |
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386 but of no good value in the hand of an unskilled. |
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387 .PP |
8 | 388 However, learning single, small tool of the toolchest is easier than |
389 learning a complex tool. | |
390 The user will have a basic understanding of a yet unknown tool, | |
391 if the several tools of the toolchest have a common style. | |
392 He will be able to transfer knowledge over one tool to another. | |
393 .PP | |
394 Moreover, the second drawback can be removed easily by adding wrappers | |
395 around the single tools. | |
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396 Novice users do not need to learn several tools if a professional wraps |
8 | 397 the single commands into a more high-level script. |
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398 Note that the wrapper script still calls the small tools; |
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399 the wrapper script is just like a skin around. |
8 | 400 No complexity is added this way, |
401 but new programs can get created out of existing one with very low effort. | |
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402 .PP |
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403 A wrapper script for finding the five largest entries in the current directory |
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404 could look like this: |
9 | 405 .DS I 2n |
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406 .CW |
9 | 407 .ps -1 |
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408 #!/bin/sh |
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409 du -s * | sort -nr | sed 5q |
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410 .DE |
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411 The script itself is just a text file that calls the command line |
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412 a professional user would type in directly. |
8 | 413 Making the program flexible on the number of entries it prints, |
414 is easily possible: | |
9 | 415 .DS I 2n |
8 | 416 .CW |
9 | 417 .ps -1 |
8 | 418 #!/bin/sh |
419 num=5 | |
420 [ $# -eq 1 ] && num="$1" | |
421 du -sh * | sort -nr | sed "${num}q" | |
422 .DE | |
423 This script acts like the one before, when called without an argument. | |
424 But one can also specify a numerical argument to define the number of lines to print. | |
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425 |
16 | 426 .NH 2 |
8 | 427 A powerful shell |
428 .LP | |
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429 It was already said, that the Unix shell provides the possibility to |
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430 combine small programs into large ones easily. |
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431 A powerful shell is a great feature in other ways, too. |
8 | 432 .PP |
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433 For instance by including a scripting language. |
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434 The control statements are build into the shell. |
8 | 435 The functions, however, are the normal programs, everyone can use on the system. |
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436 Thus, the programs are known, so learning to program in the shell is easy. |
8 | 437 Using normal programs as functions in the shell programming language |
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438 is only possible because they are small and combinable tools in a toolchest style. |
8 | 439 .PP |
440 The Unix shell encourages to write small scripts out of other programs, | |
441 because it is so easy to do. | |
442 This is a great step towards automation. | |
443 It is wonderful if the effort to automate a task equals the effort | |
444 it takes to do it the second time by hand. | |
445 If it is so, then the user will be happy to automate everything he does more than once. | |
446 .PP | |
447 Small programs that do one job well, standardized interfaces between them, | |
448 a mechanism to combine parts to larger parts, and an easy way to automate tasks, | |
449 this will inevitably produce software leverage. | |
450 Getting multiple times the benefit of an investment is a great offer. | |
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451 .PP |
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452 The shell also encourages rapid prototyping. |
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453 Many well known programs started as quickly hacked shell scripts, |
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454 and turned into ``real'' programs, written in C, later. |
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455 Building a prototype first is a way to avoid the biggest problems |
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456 in application development. |
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457 Fred Brooks writes in ``No Silver Bullet'': |
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458 .[ |
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459 %A Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. |
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460 %T No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering |
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461 %B Information Processing 1986, the Proceedings of the IFIP Tenth World Computing Conference |
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462 %E H.-J. Kugler |
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463 %D 1986 |
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464 %P 1069\(en1076 |
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465 %I Elsevier Science B.V. |
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466 %C Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
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467 .] |
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468 .QP |
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469 The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build. |
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470 No other part of the conceptual work is so difficult as establishing the detailed |
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471 technical requirements, [...]. |
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472 No other part of the work so cripples the resulting system if done wrong. |
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473 No other part is more difficult to rectify later. |
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474 .PP |
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475 Writing a prototype is a great method to become familiar with the requirements |
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476 and to actually run into real problems. |
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477 Today, prototyping is often seen as a first step in building a software. |
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478 This is, of course, good. |
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479 However, the Unix Philosophy has an \fIadditional\fP perspective on prototyping: |
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480 After having built the prototype, one might notice, that the prototype is already |
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481 \fIgood enough\fP. |
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482 Hence, no reimplementation, in a more sophisticated programming language, might be of need, |
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483 for the moment. |
23 | 484 Maybe later, it might be necessary to rewrite the software, but not now. |
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485 .PP |
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486 By delaying further work, one keeps the flexibility to react easily on |
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487 changing requirements. |
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488 Software parts that are not written will not miss the requirements. |
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489 |
16 | 490 .NH 2 |
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491 Worse is better |
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492 .LP |
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493 The Unix Philosophy aims for the 80% solution; |
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494 others call it the ``Worse is better'' approach. |
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495 .PP |
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496 First, practical experience shows, that it is almost never possible to define the |
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497 requirements completely and correctly the first time. |
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498 Hence one should not try to; it will fail anyway. |
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499 Second, practical experience shows, that requirements change during time. |
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500 Hence it is best to delay requirement-based design decisions as long as possible. |
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501 Also, the software should be small and flexible as long as possible |
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502 to react on changing requirements. |
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503 Shell scripts, for example, are more easily adjusted as C programs. |
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504 Third, practical experience shows, that maintenance is hard work. |
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505 Hence, one should keep the amount of software as small as possible; |
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506 it should just fulfill the \fIcurrent\fP requirements. |
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507 Software parts that will be written later, do not need maintenance now. |
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508 .PP |
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509 Starting with a prototype in a scripting language has several advantages: |
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510 .IP \(bu |
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511 As the initial effort is low, one will likely start right away. |
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512 .IP \(bu |
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513 As working parts are available soon, the real requirements can get identified soon. |
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514 .IP \(bu |
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515 When a software is usable, it gets used, and thus tested. |
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516 Hence problems will be found at early stages of the development. |
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517 .IP \(bu |
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518 The prototype might be enough for the moment, |
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519 thus further work on the software can be delayed to a time |
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520 when one knows better about the requirements and problems, |
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521 than now. |
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522 .IP \(bu |
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523 Implementing now only the parts that are actually needed now, |
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524 requires fewer maintenance work. |
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525 .IP \(bu |
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526 If the global situation changes so that the software is not needed anymore, |
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527 then less effort was spent into the project, than it would have be |
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528 when a different approach had been used. |
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529 |
16 | 530 .NH 2 |
11 | 531 Upgrowth and survival of software |
532 .LP | |
12 | 533 So far it was talked about \fIwriting\fP or \fIbuilding\fP software. |
13 | 534 Although these are just verbs, they do imply a specific view on the work process |
535 they describe. | |
12 | 536 The better verb, however, is to \fIgrow\fP. |
537 .PP | |
538 Creating software in the sense of the Unix Philosophy is an incremental process. | |
539 It starts with a first prototype, which evolves as requirements change. | |
540 A quickly hacked shell script might become a large, sophisticated, | |
13 | 541 compiled program this way. |
542 Its lifetime begins with the initial prototype and ends when the software is not used anymore. | |
543 While being alive it will get extended, rearranged, rebuilt (from scratch). | |
12 | 544 Growing software matches the view that ``software is never finished. It is only released.'' |
545 .[ | |
13 | 546 %O FIXME |
547 %A Mike Gancarz | |
548 %T The UNIX Philosophy | |
549 %P 26 | |
12 | 550 .] |
551 .PP | |
13 | 552 Software can be seen as being controlled by evolutionary processes. |
553 Successful software is software that is used by many for a long time. | |
12 | 554 This implies that the software is needed, useful, and better than alternatives. |
555 Darwin talks about: ``The survival of the fittest.'' | |
556 .[ | |
13 | 557 %O FIXME |
558 %A Charles Darwin | |
12 | 559 .] |
560 Transferred to software: The most successful software, is the fittest, | |
561 is the one that survives. | |
13 | 562 (This may be at the level of one creature, or at the level of one species.) |
563 The fitness of software is affected mainly by four properties: | |
15 | 564 portability of code, portability of data, range of usability, and reusability of parts. |
565 .\" .IP \(bu | |
566 .\" portability of code | |
567 .\" .IP \(bu | |
568 .\" portability of data | |
569 .\" .IP \(bu | |
570 .\" range of usability | |
571 .\" .IP \(bu | |
572 .\" reuseability of parts | |
13 | 573 .PP |
15 | 574 (1) |
575 .I "Portability of code | |
576 means, using high-level programming languages, | |
13 | 577 sticking to the standard, |
578 and avoiding optimizations that introduce dependencies on specific hardware. | |
579 Hardware has a much lower lifetime than software. | |
580 By chaining software to a specific hardware, | |
581 the software's lifetime gets shortened to that of this hardware. | |
582 In contrast, software should be easy to port \(en | |
23 | 583 adaptation is the key to success. |
13 | 584 .\" cf. practice of prog: ch08 |
585 .PP | |
15 | 586 (2) |
587 .I "Portability of data | |
588 is best achieved by avoiding binary representations | |
13 | 589 to store data, because binary representations differ from machine to machine. |
23 | 590 Textual representation is favored. |
13 | 591 Historically, ASCII was the charset of choice. |
592 In the future, UTF-8 might be the better choice, however. | |
593 Important is that it is a plain text representation in a | |
594 very common charset encoding. | |
595 Apart from being able to transfer data between machines, | |
596 readable data has the great advantage, that humans are able | |
597 to directly edit it with text editors and other tools from the Unix toolchest. | |
598 .\" gancarz tenet 5 | |
12 | 599 .PP |
15 | 600 (3) |
601 A large | |
602 .I "range of usability | |
23 | 603 ensures good adaptation, and thus good survival. |
13 | 604 It is a special distinction if a software becomes used in fields of action, |
605 the original authors did never imagine. | |
606 Software that solves problems in a general way will likely be used | |
607 for all kinds of similar problems. | |
608 Being too specific limits the range of uses. | |
609 Requirements change through time, thus use cases change or even vanish. | |
610 A good example in this point is Allman's sendmail. | |
611 Allman identifies flexibility to be one major reason for sendmail's success: | |
612 .[ | |
613 %O FIXME | |
614 %A Allman | |
615 %T sendmail | |
616 .] | |
617 .QP | |
618 Second, I limited myself to the routing function [...]. | |
619 This was a departure from the dominant thought of the time, [...]. | |
620 .QP | |
621 Third, the sendmail configuration file was flexible enough to adopt | |
622 to a rapidly changing world [...]. | |
623 .LP | |
624 Successful software adopts itself to the changing world. | |
12 | 625 .PP |
15 | 626 (4) |
627 .I "Reuse of parts | |
628 is even one step further. | |
13 | 629 A software may completely lose its field of action, |
630 but parts of which the software is build may be general and independent enough | |
631 to survive this death. | |
632 If software is build by combining small independent programs, | |
633 then there are parts readily available for reuse. | |
634 Who cares if the large program is a failure, | |
635 but parts of it become successful instead? | |
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636 |
16 | 637 .NH 2 |
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638 Summary |
0 | 639 .LP |
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640 This chapter explained the central ideas of the Unix Philosophy. |
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641 For each of the ideas, it was exposed what advantages they introduce. |
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642 The Unix Philosophy are guidelines that help to write valuable software. |
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643 From the view point of a software developer or software designer, |
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644 the Unix Philosophy provides answers to many software design problem. |
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645 .PP |
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646 The various ideas of the Unix Philosophy are very interweaved |
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647 and can hardly be applied independently. |
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648 However, the probably most important messages are: |
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649 .I "``Do one thing well!''" , |
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650 .I "``Keep it simple!''" , |
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651 and |
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652 .I "``Use software leverage!'' |
0 | 653 |
8 | 654 |
655 | |
0 | 656 .NH 1 |
19 | 657 Case study: \s-1MH\s0 |
18 | 658 .LP |
659 The last chapter introduced and explained the Unix Philosophy | |
660 from a general point of view. | |
23 | 661 The driving force were the guidelines, references to |
18 | 662 existing software were given only sparsely. |
663 In this and the next chapter, concrete software will be | |
664 the driving force in the discussion. | |
665 .PP | |
23 | 666 This first case study is about the mail user agents (\s-1MUA\s0) |
667 \s-1MH\s0 (``mail handler'') and its descendent \fInmh\fP | |
668 (``new mail handler''). | |
669 \s-1MUA\s0s provide functions to read, compose, and organize mail, | |
670 but (ideally) not to transfer. | |
19 | 671 In this document, the name \s-1MH\s0 will be used for both of them. |
672 A distinction will only be made if differences between | |
673 them are described. | |
18 | 674 |
0 | 675 |
676 .NH 2 | |
19 | 677 Historical background |
0 | 678 .LP |
19 | 679 Electronic mail was available in Unix very early. |
680 The first \s-1MUA\s0 on Unix was \f(CWmail\fP. | |
681 It was a small program that either prints the own mailbox file | |
682 or appends text to someone elses mailbox file, | |
683 depending on the command line arguments. | |
684 .[ | |
685 %O http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/pdfs/man12.pdf | |
686 .] | |
687 It was a program that did one job well. | |
23 | 688 This job was emailing, which was very simple then. |
19 | 689 .PP |
23 | 690 Later, emailing became more powerful, and thus more complex. |
19 | 691 The simple \f(CWmail\fP, which knew nothing of subjects, |
692 independent handling of single messages, | |
693 and long-time storage of them, was not powerful enough anymore. | |
694 At Berkeley, Kurt Shoens wrote \fIMail\fP (with capital `M') | |
695 in 1978 to provide additional functions for emailing. | |
696 Mail was still one program, but now it was large and did | |
697 several jobs. | |
23 | 698 Its user interface is modeled after the one of \fIed\fP. |
19 | 699 It is designed for humans, but is still scriptable. |
23 | 700 \fImailx\fP is the adaptation of Berkeley Mail into System V. |
19 | 701 .[ |
702 %A Gunnar Ritter | |
703 %O http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/mailx_history.html | |
704 .] | |
705 Elm, pine, mutt, and today a whole bunch of graphical \s-1MUA\s0s | |
706 followed Mail's direction. | |
707 They are large, monolithic programs which include all emailing functions. | |
708 .PP | |
23 | 709 A different way was taken by the people of \s-1RAND\s0 Corporation. |
19 | 710 In the beginning, they also had used a monolitic mail system, |
23 | 711 called \s-1MS\s0 simply for ``mail system''. |
19 | 712 But in 1977, Stockton Gaines and Norman Shapiro |
713 came up with a proposal of a new email system concept \(en | |
714 one that honors the Unix Philosophy. | |
715 The concept was implemented by Bruce Borden in 1978 and 1979. | |
716 This was the birth of \s-1MH\s0 \(en the ``mail handler''. | |
18 | 717 .PP |
718 Since then, \s-1RAND\s0, the University of California at Irvine and | |
19 | 719 at Berkeley, and several others have contributed to the software. |
18 | 720 However, it's core concepts remained the same. |
23 | 721 In the late 90s, when development of \s-1MH\s0 slowed down, |
19 | 722 Richard Coleman started with \fInmh\fP, the new mail handler. |
723 His goal was to improve \s-1MH\s0, especially in regard of | |
23 | 724 the requirements of modern emailing. |
19 | 725 Today, nmh is developed by various people on the Internet. |
18 | 726 .[ |
727 %T RAND and the Information Evolution: A History in Essays and Vignettes | |
728 %A Willis H. Ware | |
729 %D 2008 | |
730 %I The RAND Corporation | |
731 %P 128\(en137 | |
732 %O .CW \s-1http://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/CP537/ | |
733 .] | |
734 .[ | |
735 %T MH & xmh: Email for Users & Programmers | |
736 %A Jerry Peek | |
737 %D 1991, 1992, 1995 | |
738 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. | |
739 %P Appendix B | |
740 %O Also available online: \f(CW\s-2http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/\fP | |
741 .] | |
0 | 742 |
743 .NH 2 | |
20 | 744 Contrasts to monolithic mail systems |
0 | 745 .LP |
19 | 746 All \s-1MUA\s0s are monolithic, except \s-1MH\s0. |
20 | 747 This might not be true, |
748 but it reflects the situation pretty well. | |
19 | 749 .PP |
750 While monolithic \s-1MUA\s0s gather all function in one program, | |
751 \s-1MH\s0 is a toolchest of many small tools \(en one for each job. | |
23 | 752 Following is a list of important programs of \s-1MH\s0's toolchest |
753 and their function: | |
19 | 754 .IP \(bu |
755 .CW inc : | |
756 incorporate new mail | |
757 .IP \(bu | |
758 .CW scan : | |
759 list messages in folder | |
760 .IP \(bu | |
761 .CW show : | |
762 show message | |
763 .IP \(bu | |
764 .CW next\fR/\fPprev : | |
765 show next/previous message | |
766 .IP \(bu | |
767 .CW folder : | |
768 change current folder | |
769 .IP \(bu | |
770 .CW refile : | |
771 refile message into folder | |
772 .IP \(bu | |
773 .CW rmm : | |
774 remove message | |
775 .IP \(bu | |
776 .CW comp : | |
777 compose a new message | |
778 .IP \(bu | |
779 .CW repl : | |
780 reply to a message | |
781 .IP \(bu | |
782 .CW forw : | |
783 forward a message | |
784 .IP \(bu | |
785 .CW send : | |
786 send a prepared message | |
0 | 787 .LP |
19 | 788 \s-1MH\s0 has no special user interface like monolithic \s-1MUA\s0s have. |
789 The user does not leave the shell to run \s-1MH\s0, | |
790 but he uses \s-1MH\s0 within the shell. | |
23 | 791 Using a monolithic program with a captive user interface |
792 means ``entering'' the program, using it, and ``exiting'' the program. | |
793 Using toolchests like \s-1MH\s0 means running programs, | |
794 alone or in combinition with others, even from other toolchests, | |
795 without leaving the shell. | |
796 .PP | |
19 | 797 \s-1MH\s0's mail storage is (only little more than) a directory tree |
23 | 798 where mail folders are directories and mail messages are text files. |
19 | 799 Working with \s-1MH\s0's toolchest is much like working |
800 with Unix' toolchest: | |
801 \f(CWscan\fP is like \f(CWls\fP, | |
802 \f(CWshow\fP is like \f(CWcat\fP, | |
803 \f(CWfolder\fP is like \f(CWcd\fP, | |
804 \f(CWrefile\fP is like \f(CWmv\fP, | |
805 and \f(CWrmm\fP is like \f(CWrm\fP. | |
806 .PP | |
23 | 807 The context of tools in Unix is mainly the current working directory, |
19 | 808 the user identification, and the environment variables. |
809 \s-1MH\s0 extends this context by two more items: | |
23 | 810 .IP \(bu |
811 The current mail folder, which is similar to the current working directory. | |
812 For mail folders, \f(CWfolder\fP provides the corresponding functionality | |
813 of \f(CWpwd\fP and \f(CWcd\fP for directories. | |
814 .IP \(bu | |
815 The current message, relative to the current mail folder, | |
20 | 816 which enables commands like \f(CWnext\fP and \f(CWprev\fP. |
23 | 817 .LP |
19 | 818 In contrast to Unix' context, which is chained to the shell session, |
819 \s-1MH\s0's context is meant to be chained to a mail account. | |
20 | 820 But actually, the current message is a property of the mail folder, |
23 | 821 which appears to be a legacy. |
20 | 822 This will cause problems when multiple users work |
823 in one mail folder simultaneously. | |
0 | 824 |
20 | 825 |
0 | 826 .NH 2 |
20 | 827 Discussion of the design |
828 .LP | |
829 The following paragraphs discuss \s-1MH\s0 in regard to the tenets | |
23 | 830 of the Unix Philosophy which Gancarz identified. |
20 | 831 |
832 .PP | |
833 .I "``Small is beautiful'' | |
834 and | |
835 .I "``do one thing well'' | |
836 are two design goals that are directly visible in \s-1MH\s0. | |
837 Gancarz actually presents \s-1MH\s0 as example under the headline | |
838 ``Making UNIX Do One Thing Well'': | |
839 .QP | |
840 [\s-1MH\s0] consists of a series of programs which | |
841 when combined give the user an enormous ability | |
842 to manipulate electronic mail messages. | |
843 A complex application, it shows that not only is it | |
844 possible to build large applications from smaller | |
845 components, but also that such designs are actually preferable. | |
846 .[ | |
847 %A Mike Gancarz | |
848 %T unix-phil | |
849 %P 125 | |
850 .] | |
0 | 851 .LP |
20 | 852 The various small programs of \s-1MH\s0 were relatively easy |
23 | 853 to write, because each of them is small, limited to one function, |
854 and has clear boundaries. | |
20 | 855 For the same reasons, they are also good to maintain. |
856 Further more, the system can easily get extended. | |
857 One only needs to put a new program into the toolchest. | |
23 | 858 This was done, for instance, when \s-1MIME\s0 support was added |
20 | 859 (e.g. \f(CWmhbuild\fP). |
860 Also, different programs can exist to do the basically same job | |
861 in different ways (e.g. in nmh: \f(CWshow\fP and \f(CWmhshow\fP). | |
862 If someone needs a mail system with some additionally | |
23 | 863 functions that are available nowhere yet, he best takes a |
20 | 864 toolchest system like \s-1MH\s0 where he can add the |
865 functionality with little work. | |
866 | |
867 .PP | |
868 .I "Data storage. | |
869 How \s-1MH\s0 stores data was already mentioned. | |
870 Mail folders are directories (which contain a file | |
871 \&\f(CW.mh_sequences\fP) under the user's \s-1MH\s0 directory | |
872 (usually \f(CW$HOME/Mail\fP). | |
23 | 873 Mail messages are text files located in mail folders. |
20 | 874 The files contain the messages as they were received. |
875 The messages are numbered in ascending order in each folder. | |
876 This mailbox format is called ``\s-1MH\s0'' after the \s-1MUA\s0. | |
877 Alternatives are \fImbox\fP and \fImaildir\fP. | |
878 In the mbox format all messages are stored within one file. | |
879 This was a good solution in the early days, when messages | |
880 were only a few lines of text and were deleted soon. | |
881 Today, when single messages often include several megabytes | |
882 of attachments, it is a bad solution. | |
883 Another disadvantage of the mbox format is that it is | |
884 more difficult to write tools that work on mail messages, | |
23 | 885 because it is always necessary to first find and extract |
20 | 886 the relevant message in the mbox file. |
23 | 887 With the \s-1MH\s0 mailbox format, |
888 each message is a self-standing item, by definition. | |
20 | 889 Also, the problem of concurrent access to one mailbox is |
890 reduced to the problem of concurrent access to one message. | |
891 However, the issue of the shared parts of the context, | |
892 as mentioned above, remains. | |
893 Maildir is generally similar to \s-1MH\s0's format, | |
894 but modified towards guaranteed reliability. | |
895 This involves some complexity, unfortunately. | |
896 | |
897 .PP | |
898 .I "``Avoid captive user interfaces.'' | |
19 | 899 \s-1MH\s0 is perfectly suited for non-interactive use. |
900 It offers all functions directly and without captive user interfaces. | |
901 If users want a graphical user interface, anyhow, | |
20 | 902 they can have it with \fIxmh\fP or \fIexmh\fP, too. |
19 | 903 These are graphical frontends for the \s-1MH\s0 toolchest. |
904 This means, all email-related work is still done by \s-1MH\s0 tools, | |
20 | 905 but the frontend issues the appropriate calls when the user |
906 clicks on a button. | |
907 Providing easy-to-use user interfaces in form of frontends is a good | |
19 | 908 approach, because it does not limit the power of the backend itself. |
20 | 909 The frontend will anyway only be able to make a subset of the |
23 | 910 backend's power and flexibility available to the user. |
20 | 911 But if it is a separate program, |
912 then the missing parts can still be accessed at the backend directly. | |
19 | 913 If it is integrated, then this will hardly be possible. |
914 | |
915 .PP | |
20 | 916 .I "``Choose portability over efficiency'' |
917 and | |
918 .I "``use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability'' . | |
919 These two tenets are indirectly, but nicely, demonstrated by | |
920 Bolsky and Korn in their book about the korn shell. | |
921 .[ | |
922 %T The KornShell: command and programming language | |
923 %A Morris I. Bolsky | |
924 %A David G. Korn | |
925 %I Prentice Hall | |
926 %D 1989 | |
927 %O \s-1ISBN\s0: 0-13-516972-0 | |
928 .] | |
929 They demonstrated, in one chapter of the book, a basic implementation | |
930 of a subset of \s-1MH\s0 in ksh scripts. | |
931 Of course, this was just a demonstration, but a brilliant one. | |
932 It shows how quickly one can implement such a prototype with shell scripts, | |
933 and how readable they are. | |
934 The implementation in the scripting language may not be very fast, | |
935 but it can be fast enough though, and this is all that matters. | |
936 By having the code in an interpreted language, like the shell, | |
937 portability becomes a minor issue, if we assume the interpreter | |
938 to be widespread. | |
939 This demonstration also shows how easy it is to create single programs | |
940 of a toolchest software. | |
23 | 941 Most of them comprise less than a hundred lines of shell code. |
20 | 942 Such small software is easy to write, easy to understand, |
943 and thus easy to maintain. | |
23 | 944 A toolchest improves the possibility to only write some parts |
20 | 945 and though create a working result. |
946 Expanding the toolchest without global changes will likely be | |
947 possible, too. | |
948 | |
949 .PP | |
950 .I "``Use software leverage to your advantage'' | |
951 and the lesser tenet | |
952 .I "``allow the user to tailor the environment'' | |
953 are ideally followed in the design of \s-1MH\s0. | |
21 | 954 Tailoring the environment is heavily encouraged by the ability to |
955 directly define default options to programs, even different ones | |
956 depending on the name under which the program was called. | |
957 Software leverage is heavily encouraged by the ease it is to | |
958 create shell scripts that run a specific command line, | |
959 build of several \s-1MH\s0 programs. | |
960 There is few software that so much wants users to tailor their | |
961 environment and to leverage the use of the software, like \s-1MH\s0. | |
962 Just to make one example: | |
23 | 963 One might prefer a different listing format for the \f(CWscan\fP |
21 | 964 program. |
965 It is possible to take one of the other distributed format files | |
966 or to write one yourself. | |
967 To use the format as default for \f(CWscan\fP, a single line, | |
968 reading | |
969 .DS | |
970 .CW | |
971 scan: -form FORMATFILE | |
972 .DE | |
973 must be added to \f(CW.mh_profile\fP. | |
974 If one wants this different format as an additional command, | |
23 | 975 instead of changing the default, he needs to create a link to |
976 \f(CWscan\fP, for instance titled \f(CWscan2\fP. | |
21 | 977 The line in \f(CW.mh_profile\fP would then start with \f(CWscan2\fP, |
978 as the option should only be in effect when scan was called as | |
979 \f(CWscan2\fP. | |
20 | 980 |
981 .PP | |
21 | 982 .I "``Make every program a filter'' |
983 is hard to find in \s-1MH\s0. | |
984 The reason therefore is that most of \s-1MH\s0's tools provide | |
985 basic file system operations for the mailboxes. | |
986 \f(CWls\fP, \f(CWcp\fP, \f(CWmv\fP, and \f(CWrm\fP | |
987 aren't filters neither. | |
23 | 988 However, they build a basis on which filters can operate. |
989 \s-1MH\s0 does not provide many filters itself, but it is a basis | |
990 to write filters for. | |
21 | 991 |
992 .PP | |
993 .I "``Build a prototype as soon as possible'' | |
994 was again well followed by \s-1MH\s0. | |
995 This tenet, of course, focuses on early development, which is | |
996 long time ago for \s-1MH\s0. | |
997 But without following this guideline at the very beginning, | |
23 | 998 Bruce Borden may have not convinced the management of \s-1RAND\s0 |
999 to ever create \s-1MH\s0. | |
1000 In Bruce' own words: | |
21 | 1001 .QP |
1002 [...] but [Stockton Gaines and Norm Shapiro] were not able | |
23 | 1003 to convince anyone that such a system would be fast enough to be usable. |
21 | 1004 I proposed a very short project to prove the basic concepts, |
1005 and my management agreed. | |
1006 Looking back, I realize that I had been very lucky with my first design. | |
1007 Without nearly enough design work, | |
1008 I built a working environment and some header files | |
1009 with key structures and wrote the first few \s-1MH\s0 commands: | |
1010 inc, show/next/prev, and comp. | |
1011 [...] | |
1012 With these three, I was able to convince people that the structure was viable. | |
1013 This took about three weeks. | |
1014 .[ | |
1015 %O FIXME | |
1016 .] | |
0 | 1017 |
1018 .NH 2 | |
1019 Problems | |
1020 .LP | |
22 | 1021 \s-1MH\s0, for sure is not without problems. |
1022 There are two main problems: one technical, the other about human behavior. | |
1023 .PP | |
1024 \s-1MH\s0 is old and email today is very different to email in the time | |
1025 when \s-1MH\s0 was designed. | |
1026 \s-1MH\s0 adopted to the changes pretty well, but it is limited. | |
1027 For example in development resources. | |
1028 \s-1MIME\s0 support and support for different character encodings | |
1029 is available, but only on a moderate level. | |
1030 More active developers could quickly improve there. | |
1031 It is also limited by design, which is the larger problem. | |
1032 \s-1IMAP\s0, for example, conflicts with \s-1MH\s0's design to a large extend. | |
1033 These design conflicts are not easily solvable. | |
1034 Possibly, they require a redesign. | |
1035 .PP | |
1036 The other kind of problem is human habits. | |
1037 When in this world almost all \s-1MUA\s0s are monolithic, | |
1038 it is very difficult to convince people to use a toolbox style \s-1MUA\s0 | |
1039 like \s-1MH\s0. | |
1040 The habits are so strong, that even people who understood the concept | |
1041 and advantages of \s-1MH\s0 do not like to switch. | |
1042 Unfortunately, the frontends to \s-1MH\s0, which can provide familiar look'n'feel, | |
1043 are not very appealing in contrast to what monolithic \s-1MUA\s0s offer. | |
20 | 1044 |
1045 .NH 2 | |
1046 Summary \s-1MH\s0 | |
1047 .LP | |
1048 flexibility, no redundancy, use the shell | |
0 | 1049 |
8 | 1050 |
1051 | |
0 | 1052 .NH 1 |
1053 Case study: uzbl | |
1054 | |
1055 .NH 2 | |
1056 History | |
1057 .LP | |
1058 uzbl is young | |
1059 | |
1060 .NH 2 | |
1061 Contrasts to similar sw | |
1062 .LP | |
1063 like with nmh | |
1064 .LP | |
1065 addons, plugins, modules | |
1066 | |
1067 .NH 2 | |
1068 Gains of the design | |
1069 .LP | |
1070 | |
1071 .NH 2 | |
1072 Problems | |
1073 .LP | |
1074 broken web | |
1075 | |
8 | 1076 |
1077 | |
0 | 1078 .NH 1 |
1079 Final thoughts | |
1080 | |
1081 .NH 2 | |
1082 Quick summary | |
1083 .LP | |
1084 good design | |
1085 .LP | |
1086 unix phil | |
1087 .LP | |
1088 case studies | |
1089 | |
1090 .NH 2 | |
1091 Why people should choose | |
1092 .LP | |
1093 Make the right choice! | |
1094 | |
1095 .nr PI .5i | |
1096 .rm ]< | |
1097 .de ]< | |
1098 .LP | |
1099 .de FP | |
1100 .IP \\\\$1. | |
1101 \\.. | |
1102 .rm FS FE | |
1103 .. | |
1104 .SH | |
1105 References | |
1106 .[ | |
1107 $LIST$ | |
1108 .] | |
1109 .wh -1p |