[GoLUG] Unix Hater's Handbook

[Kyle Terrien]

On Thu, Jan 16, 2025 at 09:27:13AM -0500, Steve Litt wrote:
> Unix Hater's Handbook
> 
> https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf
> 
> LOL.

In the past, I have read several chapters of this book.  Eric Raymond
also wrote some notes on it versus what has been fixed since... in
2008.

http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=538

Re-reading Dennis Ritchie’s Anti-Forward gave me a good laugh this
morning.  You know someone is a smart intellectual when he writes like
“the rational prisoner exploits the weak places, creates order from
chaos.”

(By the way, “order from chaos” is the Freemasonic slogan that usually
pops up in Internet rabbit holes about the New World Order.  So, bonus
points to Ritchie for that reference.)

Also, that email comes from Ritchie’s Plan 9 email address because he
was working on Plan 9 at the time.  Plan 9 was the Unix successor and
did many things better, especially sharing resources over the network.

https://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/9

Imagine if we implement interfaces to applications and services in the
form of network-exposed filesystems like in Plan 9.  We could dump all
those “REST” HTTP interfaces (which are far too common these days),
and then go back to using the filesystem as a means of interprocess
communication.  Everything is a file, except more so.  What a concept!

> I *would* like to try out a Lisp machine though. Maybe I'll install
> Emacs.

Emacs is great!  I do almost all my productive work in it.  Notes,
calendars, and todos are in org-mode.  Code and scripts open in Emacs
first before any specialized IDE.  Mail is composed in it and
organized in mutt (okay, I cheat a little).  The one thing Emacs
cannot do is scratch that spot on my back that I can’t reach.

-- 
[*] Kyle Terrien
    Run GNU/Linux, avoid orgs who hate you,
    Love justice, and hate iniquity.
    https://terren.us/