Mercurial > docs > unix-phil
annotate unix-phil.ms @ 30:ec17b3a969c7
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| author | meillo@marmaro.de |
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| date | Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:07:02 +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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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 |
| 30 | 659 The previous chapter introduced and explained the Unix Philosophy |
| 18 | 660 from a general point of view. |
| 30 | 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. |
| 30 | 680 The first \s-1MUA\s0 on Unix was \f(CWmail\fP, |
| 681 which was already present in the First Edition. | |
| 682 .[ | |
| 683 %A Peter H. Salus | |
| 684 %T A Quarter Century of UNIX | |
| 685 %D 1994 | |
| 686 %I Addison-Wesley | |
| 687 %P 41 f. | |
| 688 .] | |
| 689 It was a small program that either prints the user's mailbox file | |
| 19 | 690 or appends text to someone elses mailbox file, |
| 691 depending on the command line arguments. | |
| 692 .[ | |
| 693 %O http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/pdfs/man12.pdf | |
| 694 .] | |
| 695 It was a program that did one job well. | |
| 23 | 696 This job was emailing, which was very simple then. |
| 19 | 697 .PP |
| 23 | 698 Later, emailing became more powerful, and thus more complex. |
| 19 | 699 The simple \f(CWmail\fP, which knew nothing of subjects, |
| 700 independent handling of single messages, | |
| 701 and long-time storage of them, was not powerful enough anymore. | |
| 702 At Berkeley, Kurt Shoens wrote \fIMail\fP (with capital `M') | |
| 703 in 1978 to provide additional functions for emailing. | |
| 704 Mail was still one program, but now it was large and did | |
| 705 several jobs. | |
| 23 | 706 Its user interface is modeled after the one of \fIed\fP. |
| 19 | 707 It is designed for humans, but is still scriptable. |
| 23 | 708 \fImailx\fP is the adaptation of Berkeley Mail into System V. |
| 19 | 709 .[ |
| 710 %A Gunnar Ritter | |
| 711 %O http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/mailx_history.html | |
| 712 .] | |
| 30 | 713 Elm, pine, mutt, and a whole bunch of graphical \s-1MUA\s0s |
| 19 | 714 followed Mail's direction. |
| 715 They are large, monolithic programs which include all emailing functions. | |
| 716 .PP | |
| 23 | 717 A different way was taken by the people of \s-1RAND\s0 Corporation. |
| 19 | 718 In the beginning, they also had used a monolitic mail system, |
| 30 | 719 called \s-1MS\s0 (for ``mail system''). |
| 19 | 720 But in 1977, Stockton Gaines and Norman Shapiro |
| 721 came up with a proposal of a new email system concept \(en | |
| 722 one that honors the Unix Philosophy. | |
| 723 The concept was implemented by Bruce Borden in 1978 and 1979. | |
| 724 This was the birth of \s-1MH\s0 \(en the ``mail handler''. | |
| 18 | 725 .PP |
| 726 Since then, \s-1RAND\s0, the University of California at Irvine and | |
| 19 | 727 at Berkeley, and several others have contributed to the software. |
| 18 | 728 However, it's core concepts remained the same. |
| 23 | 729 In the late 90s, when development of \s-1MH\s0 slowed down, |
| 19 | 730 Richard Coleman started with \fInmh\fP, the new mail handler. |
| 731 His goal was to improve \s-1MH\s0, especially in regard of | |
| 23 | 732 the requirements of modern emailing. |
| 19 | 733 Today, nmh is developed by various people on the Internet. |
| 18 | 734 .[ |
| 735 %T RAND and the Information Evolution: A History in Essays and Vignettes | |
| 736 %A Willis H. Ware | |
| 737 %D 2008 | |
| 738 %I The RAND Corporation | |
| 739 %P 128\(en137 | |
| 740 %O .CW \s-1http://www.rand.org/pubs/corporate_pubs/CP537/ | |
| 741 .] | |
| 742 .[ | |
| 743 %T MH & xmh: Email for Users & Programmers | |
| 744 %A Jerry Peek | |
| 745 %D 1991, 1992, 1995 | |
| 746 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. | |
| 747 %P Appendix B | |
| 748 %O Also available online: \f(CW\s-2http://rand-mh.sourceforge.net/book/\fP | |
| 749 .] | |
| 0 | 750 |
| 751 .NH 2 | |
| 20 | 752 Contrasts to monolithic mail systems |
| 0 | 753 .LP |
| 19 | 754 All \s-1MUA\s0s are monolithic, except \s-1MH\s0. |
| 30 | 755 Although there might acutally exist further, very little known, |
| 756 toolchest \s-1MUA\s0s, this statement reflects the situation pretty well. | |
| 19 | 757 .PP |
| 30 | 758 Monolithic \s-1MUA\s0s gather all their functions in one program. |
| 759 In contrast, \s-1MH\s0 is a toolchest of many small tools \(en one for each job. | |
| 23 | 760 Following is a list of important programs of \s-1MH\s0's toolchest |
| 30 | 761 and their function. |
| 762 It gives a feeling of how the toolchest looks like. | |
| 19 | 763 .IP \(bu |
| 764 .CW inc : | |
| 30 | 765 incorporate new mail (this is how mail enters the system) |
| 19 | 766 .IP \(bu |
| 767 .CW scan : | |
| 768 list messages in folder | |
| 769 .IP \(bu | |
| 770 .CW show : | |
| 771 show message | |
| 772 .IP \(bu | |
| 773 .CW next\fR/\fPprev : | |
| 774 show next/previous message | |
| 775 .IP \(bu | |
| 776 .CW folder : | |
| 777 change current folder | |
| 778 .IP \(bu | |
| 779 .CW refile : | |
| 780 refile message into folder | |
| 781 .IP \(bu | |
| 782 .CW rmm : | |
| 783 remove message | |
| 784 .IP \(bu | |
| 785 .CW comp : | |
| 786 compose a new message | |
| 787 .IP \(bu | |
| 788 .CW repl : | |
| 789 reply to a message | |
| 790 .IP \(bu | |
| 791 .CW forw : | |
| 792 forward a message | |
| 793 .IP \(bu | |
| 794 .CW send : | |
| 30 | 795 send a prepared message (this is how mail leaves the system) |
| 0 | 796 .LP |
| 19 | 797 \s-1MH\s0 has no special user interface like monolithic \s-1MUA\s0s have. |
| 798 The user does not leave the shell to run \s-1MH\s0, | |
| 30 | 799 but he uses the various \s-1MH\s0 programs within the shell. |
| 23 | 800 Using a monolithic program with a captive user interface |
| 801 means ``entering'' the program, using it, and ``exiting'' the program. | |
| 802 Using toolchests like \s-1MH\s0 means running programs, | |
| 803 alone or in combinition with others, even from other toolchests, | |
| 804 without leaving the shell. | |
| 30 | 805 |
| 806 .NH 2 | |
| 807 Data storage | |
| 808 .LP | |
| 19 | 809 \s-1MH\s0's mail storage is (only little more than) a directory tree |
| 23 | 810 where mail folders are directories and mail messages are text files. |
| 19 | 811 Working with \s-1MH\s0's toolchest is much like working |
| 812 with Unix' toolchest: | |
| 813 \f(CWscan\fP is like \f(CWls\fP, | |
| 814 \f(CWshow\fP is like \f(CWcat\fP, | |
| 30 | 815 \f(CWfolder\fP is like \f(CWcd\fP/\f(CWpwd\fP, |
| 19 | 816 \f(CWrefile\fP is like \f(CWmv\fP, |
| 817 and \f(CWrmm\fP is like \f(CWrm\fP. | |
| 818 .PP | |
| 23 | 819 The context of tools in Unix is mainly the current working directory, |
| 19 | 820 the user identification, and the environment variables. |
| 821 \s-1MH\s0 extends this context by two more items: | |
| 23 | 822 .IP \(bu |
| 823 The current mail folder, which is similar to the current working directory. | |
| 824 For mail folders, \f(CWfolder\fP provides the corresponding functionality | |
| 825 of \f(CWpwd\fP and \f(CWcd\fP for directories. | |
| 826 .IP \(bu | |
| 827 The current message, relative to the current mail folder, | |
| 20 | 828 which enables commands like \f(CWnext\fP and \f(CWprev\fP. |
| 23 | 829 .LP |
| 19 | 830 In contrast to Unix' context, which is chained to the shell session, |
| 831 \s-1MH\s0's context is meant to be chained to a mail account. | |
| 20 | 832 But actually, the current message is a property of the mail folder, |
| 23 | 833 which appears to be a legacy. |
| 20 | 834 This will cause problems when multiple users work |
| 835 in one mail folder simultaneously. | |
| 30 | 836 .PP |
| 837 .I "Data storage. | |
| 838 How \s-1MH\s0 stores data was already mentioned. | |
| 839 Mail folders are directories (which contain a file | |
| 840 \&\f(CW.mh_sequences\fP) under the user's \s-1MH\s0 directory | |
| 841 (usually \f(CW$HOME/Mail\fP). | |
| 842 Mail messages are text files located in mail folders. | |
| 843 The files contain the messages as they were received. | |
| 844 The messages are numbered in ascending order in each folder. | |
| 845 This mailbox format is called ``\s-1MH\s0'' after the \s-1MUA\s0. | |
| 846 Alternatives are \fImbox\fP and \fImaildir\fP. | |
| 847 In the mbox format all messages are stored within one file. | |
| 848 This was a good solution in the early days, when messages | |
| 849 were only a few lines of text and were deleted soon. | |
| 850 Today, when single messages often include several megabytes | |
| 851 of attachments, it is a bad solution. | |
| 852 Another disadvantage of the mbox format is that it is | |
| 853 more difficult to write tools that work on mail messages, | |
| 854 because it is always necessary to first find and extract | |
| 855 the relevant message in the mbox file. | |
| 856 With the \s-1MH\s0 mailbox format, | |
| 857 each message is a self-standing item, by definition. | |
| 858 Also, the problem of concurrent access to one mailbox is | |
| 859 reduced to the problem of concurrent access to one message. | |
| 860 However, the issue of the shared parts of the context, | |
| 861 as mentioned above, remains. | |
| 862 Maildir is generally similar to \s-1MH\s0's format, | |
| 863 but modified towards guaranteed reliability. | |
| 864 This involves some complexity, unfortunately. | |
| 0 | 865 |
| 20 | 866 |
| 0 | 867 .NH 2 |
| 20 | 868 Discussion of the design |
| 869 .LP | |
| 870 The following paragraphs discuss \s-1MH\s0 in regard to the tenets | |
| 23 | 871 of the Unix Philosophy which Gancarz identified. |
| 20 | 872 |
| 873 .PP | |
| 874 .I "``Small is beautiful'' | |
| 875 and | |
| 876 .I "``do one thing well'' | |
| 877 are two design goals that are directly visible in \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 878 Gancarz actually presents \s-1MH\s0 as example under the headline | |
| 879 ``Making UNIX Do One Thing Well'': | |
| 880 .QP | |
| 881 [\s-1MH\s0] consists of a series of programs which | |
| 882 when combined give the user an enormous ability | |
| 883 to manipulate electronic mail messages. | |
| 884 A complex application, it shows that not only is it | |
| 885 possible to build large applications from smaller | |
| 886 components, but also that such designs are actually preferable. | |
| 887 .[ | |
| 888 %A Mike Gancarz | |
| 889 %T unix-phil | |
| 890 %P 125 | |
| 891 .] | |
| 0 | 892 .LP |
| 20 | 893 The various small programs of \s-1MH\s0 were relatively easy |
| 23 | 894 to write, because each of them is small, limited to one function, |
| 895 and has clear boundaries. | |
| 20 | 896 For the same reasons, they are also good to maintain. |
| 897 Further more, the system can easily get extended. | |
| 898 One only needs to put a new program into the toolchest. | |
| 23 | 899 This was done, for instance, when \s-1MIME\s0 support was added |
| 20 | 900 (e.g. \f(CWmhbuild\fP). |
| 901 Also, different programs can exist to do the basically same job | |
| 902 in different ways (e.g. in nmh: \f(CWshow\fP and \f(CWmhshow\fP). | |
| 903 If someone needs a mail system with some additionally | |
| 23 | 904 functions that are available nowhere yet, he best takes a |
| 20 | 905 toolchest system like \s-1MH\s0 where he can add the |
| 906 functionality with little work. | |
| 907 | |
| 908 .PP | |
| 30 | 909 .I "Store data in flat text files. |
| 910 FIXME | |
| 20 | 911 |
| 912 .PP | |
| 913 .I "``Avoid captive user interfaces.'' | |
| 19 | 914 \s-1MH\s0 is perfectly suited for non-interactive use. |
| 915 It offers all functions directly and without captive user interfaces. | |
| 30 | 916 If, nonetheless, users want a graphical user interface, |
| 20 | 917 they can have it with \fIxmh\fP or \fIexmh\fP, too. |
| 19 | 918 These are graphical frontends for the \s-1MH\s0 toolchest. |
| 919 This means, all email-related work is still done by \s-1MH\s0 tools, | |
| 20 | 920 but the frontend issues the appropriate calls when the user |
| 30 | 921 clicks on buttons. |
| 20 | 922 Providing easy-to-use user interfaces in form of frontends is a good |
| 19 | 923 approach, because it does not limit the power of the backend itself. |
| 20 | 924 The frontend will anyway only be able to make a subset of the |
| 23 | 925 backend's power and flexibility available to the user. |
| 20 | 926 But if it is a separate program, |
| 927 then the missing parts can still be accessed at the backend directly. | |
| 19 | 928 If it is integrated, then this will hardly be possible. |
| 30 | 929 Further more, it is possible to have different frontends to the same |
| 930 backend. | |
| 19 | 931 |
| 932 .PP | |
| 20 | 933 .I "``Choose portability over efficiency'' |
| 934 and | |
| 935 .I "``use shell scripts to increase leverage and portability'' . | |
| 936 These two tenets are indirectly, but nicely, demonstrated by | |
| 30 | 937 Bolsky and Korn in their book about the Korn Shell. |
| 20 | 938 .[ |
| 939 %T The KornShell: command and programming language | |
| 940 %A Morris I. Bolsky | |
| 941 %A David G. Korn | |
| 942 %I Prentice Hall | |
| 943 %D 1989 | |
| 30 | 944 %P 254\(en290 |
| 20 | 945 %O \s-1ISBN\s0: 0-13-516972-0 |
| 946 .] | |
| 30 | 947 They demonstrated, in chapter 18 of the book, a basic implementation |
| 20 | 948 of a subset of \s-1MH\s0 in ksh scripts. |
| 949 Of course, this was just a demonstration, but a brilliant one. | |
| 950 It shows how quickly one can implement such a prototype with shell scripts, | |
| 951 and how readable they are. | |
| 952 The implementation in the scripting language may not be very fast, | |
| 953 but it can be fast enough though, and this is all that matters. | |
| 954 By having the code in an interpreted language, like the shell, | |
| 955 portability becomes a minor issue, if we assume the interpreter | |
| 956 to be widespread. | |
| 957 This demonstration also shows how easy it is to create single programs | |
| 958 of a toolchest software. | |
| 30 | 959 There are eight tools (two of them have multiple names) and 16 functions |
| 960 with supporting code. | |
| 961 Each tool comprises between 12 and 38 lines of ksh, | |
| 962 in total about 200 lines. | |
| 963 The functions comprise between 3 and 78 lines of ksh, | |
| 964 in total about 450 lines. | |
| 20 | 965 Such small software is easy to write, easy to understand, |
| 966 and thus easy to maintain. | |
| 23 | 967 A toolchest improves the possibility to only write some parts |
| 20 | 968 and though create a working result. |
| 969 Expanding the toolchest without global changes will likely be | |
| 970 possible, too. | |
| 971 | |
| 972 .PP | |
| 973 .I "``Use software leverage to your advantage'' | |
| 974 and the lesser tenet | |
| 975 .I "``allow the user to tailor the environment'' | |
| 976 are ideally followed in the design of \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 21 | 977 Tailoring the environment is heavily encouraged by the ability to |
| 30 | 978 directly define default options to programs. |
| 979 It is even possible to define different default options | |
| 21 | 980 depending on the name under which the program was called. |
| 981 Software leverage is heavily encouraged by the ease it is to | |
| 982 create shell scripts that run a specific command line, | |
| 30 | 983 built of several \s-1MH\s0 programs. |
| 21 | 984 There is few software that so much wants users to tailor their |
| 985 environment and to leverage the use of the software, like \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 986 Just to make one example: | |
| 23 | 987 One might prefer a different listing format for the \f(CWscan\fP |
| 21 | 988 program. |
| 30 | 989 It is possible to take one of the distributed format files |
| 21 | 990 or to write one yourself. |
| 991 To use the format as default for \f(CWscan\fP, a single line, | |
| 992 reading | |
| 993 .DS | |
| 994 .CW | |
| 995 scan: -form FORMATFILE | |
| 996 .DE | |
| 997 must be added to \f(CW.mh_profile\fP. | |
| 998 If one wants this different format as an additional command, | |
| 23 | 999 instead of changing the default, he needs to create a link to |
| 1000 \f(CWscan\fP, for instance titled \f(CWscan2\fP. | |
| 21 | 1001 The line in \f(CW.mh_profile\fP would then start with \f(CWscan2\fP, |
| 30 | 1002 as the option should only be in effect when scan is called as |
| 21 | 1003 \f(CWscan2\fP. |
| 20 | 1004 |
| 1005 .PP | |
| 21 | 1006 .I "``Make every program a filter'' |
| 1007 is hard to find in \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 1008 The reason therefore is that most of \s-1MH\s0's tools provide | |
| 1009 basic file system operations for the mailboxes. | |
| 30 | 1010 The reason is the same because of which |
| 21 | 1011 \f(CWls\fP, \f(CWcp\fP, \f(CWmv\fP, and \f(CWrm\fP |
| 1012 aren't filters neither. | |
| 23 | 1013 However, they build a basis on which filters can operate. |
| 1014 \s-1MH\s0 does not provide many filters itself, but it is a basis | |
| 1015 to write filters for. | |
| 30 | 1016 An example would be a mail message text highlighter, |
| 1017 that means a program that makes use of a color terminal to display | |
| 1018 header lines, quotations, and signatures in distinct colors. | |
| 1019 The author's version of this program, for instance, | |
| 1020 is a 25 line awk script. | |
| 21 | 1021 |
| 1022 .PP | |
| 1023 .I "``Build a prototype as soon as possible'' | |
| 1024 was again well followed by \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 1025 This tenet, of course, focuses on early development, which is | |
| 1026 long time ago for \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 1027 But without following this guideline at the very beginning, | |
| 23 | 1028 Bruce Borden may have not convinced the management of \s-1RAND\s0 |
| 1029 to ever create \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 1030 In Bruce' own words: | |
| 21 | 1031 .QP |
| 30 | 1032 [...] but they [Stockton Gaines and Norm Shapiro] were not able |
| 23 | 1033 to convince anyone that such a system would be fast enough to be usable. |
| 21 | 1034 I proposed a very short project to prove the basic concepts, |
| 1035 and my management agreed. | |
| 1036 Looking back, I realize that I had been very lucky with my first design. | |
| 1037 Without nearly enough design work, | |
| 1038 I built a working environment and some header files | |
| 1039 with key structures and wrote the first few \s-1MH\s0 commands: | |
| 1040 inc, show/next/prev, and comp. | |
| 1041 [...] | |
| 1042 With these three, I was able to convince people that the structure was viable. | |
| 1043 This took about three weeks. | |
| 1044 .[ | |
| 1045 %O FIXME | |
| 1046 .] | |
| 0 | 1047 |
| 1048 .NH 2 | |
| 1049 Problems | |
| 1050 .LP | |
| 22 | 1051 \s-1MH\s0, for sure is not without problems. |
| 30 | 1052 There are two main problems: one is technical, the other is about human behavior. |
| 22 | 1053 .PP |
| 1054 \s-1MH\s0 is old and email today is very different to email in the time | |
| 1055 when \s-1MH\s0 was designed. | |
| 1056 \s-1MH\s0 adopted to the changes pretty well, but it is limited. | |
| 1057 For example in development resources. | |
| 1058 \s-1MIME\s0 support and support for different character encodings | |
| 1059 is available, but only on a moderate level. | |
| 1060 More active developers could quickly improve there. | |
| 1061 It is also limited by design, which is the larger problem. | |
| 1062 \s-1IMAP\s0, for example, conflicts with \s-1MH\s0's design to a large extend. | |
| 1063 These design conflicts are not easily solvable. | |
| 1064 Possibly, they require a redesign. | |
| 30 | 1065 Maybe \s-1IMAP\s0 is too different to the classic mail model which \s-1MH\s0 covers, |
| 1066 hence \s-1MH\s0 may never work well with \s-1IMAP\s0. | |
| 22 | 1067 .PP |
| 1068 The other kind of problem is human habits. | |
| 1069 When in this world almost all \s-1MUA\s0s are monolithic, | |
| 1070 it is very difficult to convince people to use a toolbox style \s-1MUA\s0 | |
| 1071 like \s-1MH\s0. | |
| 1072 The habits are so strong, that even people who understood the concept | |
| 30 | 1073 and advantages of \s-1MH\s0 do not like to switch, |
| 1074 simply because \s-1MH\s0 is different. | |
| 1075 Unfortunately, the frontends to \s-1MH\s0, which could provide familiar look'n'feel, | |
| 1076 are quite outdated and thus not very appealing compared to the modern interfaces | |
| 1077 which monolithic \s-1MUA\s0s offer. | |
| 20 | 1078 |
| 1079 .NH 2 | |
| 1080 Summary \s-1MH\s0 | |
| 1081 .LP | |
| 1082 flexibility, no redundancy, use the shell | |
| 0 | 1083 |
| 8 | 1084 |
| 1085 | |
| 0 | 1086 .NH 1 |
| 1087 Case study: uzbl | |
| 1088 | |
| 1089 .NH 2 | |
| 1090 History | |
| 1091 .LP | |
| 1092 uzbl is young | |
| 1093 | |
| 1094 .NH 2 | |
| 1095 Contrasts to similar sw | |
| 1096 .LP | |
| 1097 like with nmh | |
| 1098 .LP | |
| 1099 addons, plugins, modules | |
| 1100 | |
| 1101 .NH 2 | |
| 1102 Gains of the design | |
| 1103 .LP | |
| 1104 | |
| 1105 .NH 2 | |
| 1106 Problems | |
| 1107 .LP | |
| 1108 broken web | |
| 1109 | |
| 8 | 1110 |
| 1111 | |
| 0 | 1112 .NH 1 |
| 1113 Final thoughts | |
| 1114 | |
| 1115 .NH 2 | |
| 1116 Quick summary | |
| 1117 .LP | |
| 1118 good design | |
| 1119 .LP | |
| 1120 unix phil | |
| 1121 .LP | |
| 1122 case studies | |
| 1123 | |
| 1124 .NH 2 | |
| 1125 Why people should choose | |
| 1126 .LP | |
| 1127 Make the right choice! | |
| 1128 | |
| 1129 .nr PI .5i | |
| 1130 .rm ]< | |
| 1131 .de ]< | |
| 1132 .LP | |
| 1133 .de FP | |
| 1134 .IP \\\\$1. | |
| 1135 \\.. | |
| 1136 .rm FS FE | |
| 1137 .. | |
| 1138 .SH | |
| 1139 References | |
| 1140 .[ | |
| 1141 $LIST$ | |
| 1142 .] | |
| 1143 .wh -1p |