“One thing well” misses the point: it should be “One thing well AND COMPOSES WELL”
If the implementation isn't respecting The Rule of Composition it's actually not adhering to the Unix philosophy in the first place. The tweet is referring to one of Doug McIlroy's (one of the Unix founders, inventor of the Unix pipe) famous quotes:
"This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface."
Pure beauty, but it's almost too concise a definition if you haven't experienced the culture of Unix (many years of usage / reading code / writing code / communication with other followers).
ESR's exhaustive list of Unix rules in plain English might be a better start for the uninitiated (among which one will find the aforementioned Rule of Composition).
For all those seeking enlightenment, go forth and read the The Art of Unix Programming:
If the implementation isn't respecting The Rule of Composition it's actually not adhering to the Unix philosophy in the first place. The tweet is referring to one of Doug McIlroy's (one of the Unix founders, inventor of the Unix pipe) famous quotes:
"This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface."
Pure beauty, but it's almost too concise a definition if you haven't experienced the culture of Unix (many years of usage / reading code / writing code / communication with other followers). ESR's exhaustive list of Unix rules in plain English might be a better start for the uninitiated (among which one will find the aforementioned Rule of Composition).
For all those seeking enlightenment, go forth and read the The Art of Unix Programming:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Unix_Programming
17 Unix Rules:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Eric_Raymond.E...